BC Climate Action Report Card highlights need for government to boost its climate ambition

Over 500 diverse organizations from numerous sectors are calling for the BC government to transform its climate plan and implement ten urgent climate actions.

Unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-waututh) First Nations (Vancouver) | December 15, 2022: On the heels of B.C. residents learning that the province is on track to miss its 2025 and 2030 legislated climate targets, the BC Climate Emergency Campaign (BCCEC) calls on Premier Eby to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7.5 percent per year, and to reject building new liquified natural gas (LNG) projects.

The BCCEC has submitted a Climate Action Report Card to Premier Eby, along with a formal letter requesting he meet with a delegation from the campaign to discuss how the government can significantly increase its climate ambition. The report card issues a failing grade to the province for its progress on implementing ten urgent actions to confront the climate emergency. The campaign is encouraged by Premier Eby’s recent statement that “we cannot continue to expand fossil-fuel infrastructure and hit our climate goals,” and hopes to work cooperatively with him to see the province adopt a robust climate emergency plan. 

In September 2021, the BCCEC sent an open letter to the BC government, endorsed by 200 organizations at the time, calling on the provincial government to transform CleanBC into a genuine climate emergency plan and outlining ten urgent actions to confront the climate crisis. As of now, that list of organizational signatories has grown to over 520 (representing over two million British Columbians). Signatories of the open letter include agriculture, arts, business, community, education, environment, faith, food producers, health, housing, Indigenous, labour, local government, outdoor recreation, research, seniors, tourism, and youth organizations.

Many of B.C.’s five proposed LNG projects are set to begin operations in tandem with the 2025 and 2030 legislated targets, making these targets impossible to meet, as confirmed by the province in its recent CleanBC Climate Change Accountability Report. The report shows that B.C. is on track to miss its 2025 target by 15 percent, and will fall short (p. 4) of the 2030 target. 

 LNG Canada’s phase 1 is set to come online in 2025, emitting at least 3.5 megatonnes of emissions a year, and will be responsible for B.C. missing its 2025 target – and yet B.C. is considering further expansion of LNG. Phase 2 of LNG Canada, Tilbury Marine Jetty LNG in Delta, Woodfibre LNG in Squamish, Cedar LNG in Kitimat, and Ksi Lisims LNG north of Prince Rupert are all proposed to come online between 2026 and 2028. Premier Eby must send a clear message that B.C.’s climate plans have no room for these projects.

Meanwhile, B.C.’s progress on curbing emissions is minimal. Gross emissions for 2020 – the most current year available – were just one percent (p. 7) below 2007 levels, the baseline year for legislated targets, with the province noting that emissions in 2020 were likely lower than they would have been due to slower economic activity associated with the pandemic. 

“The province’s recently released CleanBC Climate Change Accountability Report reveals that B.C. is going to miss its 2025 climate target without bold climate action,” says Sven Biggs, Stand.earth’s Canadian Oil and Gas Program Director. “If Premier Eby hopes to put our province back on track he needs to instruct his new cabinet to say no to the expansion of fracking and LNG.”

“Indigenous peoples’ experiences over the past year have shown that this province is deeply unprepared for the realities of the climate crisis and yet the Crown continues on with business as usual with fossil fuels and deforestation,” says Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs’ Secretary-Treasurer Kukpi7 Judy Wilson (the UBCIC is a signatory to the open letter).

“It is no secret that BC has been one of the hardest hit provinces in Canada when it comes to experiencing climate catastrophes,” says Seth Klein of the Climate Emergency Unit. “Between the heat dome of 2021 that killed over 600 people, multiple atmospheric rivers and severe flooding, wildfires, and most recently, record-breaking drought, BC residents are increasingly finding themselves on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Recent images depicting tens of thousands of dead salmon lying in dry riverbeds on BC’s central coast are enough to stir even the toughest hearts.” 

“This is not simply an environmental crisis; climate change is also a health emergency that has already harmed thousands of people in this province,” says Dr. Melissa Lem, president of Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (another signatory group). “It's imperative that the BC government step up its pace on the clean energy transition to save lives.” 

Images and Resources

Images, photo credits and cutlines, as well as graphs of B.C.’s greenhouse gas emissions trends are available in this online folder:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16rv1WvAm6MP2-0GCOB2yBX3U6JuLB74Y 

About the BC Climate Emergency Campaign

The BC Climate Emergency Campaign is a group of civil society organizations, anxious about the climate emergency, that are collaborating to increase the ambition of climate policy and action in B.C. We are not a formal coalition, but have chosen to work together on a joint campaign. bcclimateemergency.ca

Backgrounder

The 10 urgent climate actions called for by the BCCEC, and their grades, are:

1. Set binding climate targets based on science and justice – FAIL
   Rationale: No plan to achieve the 2025 target, which makes the major gaps and shortcomings in the plan to achieve the 2030 target unacceptable. No plan to achieve the legislated 2040 and 2050 greenhouse gas reduction targets.

2. Invest in a thriving, regenerative, zero emissions economy – FAIL
   Rationale: Did not invest two percent of B.C.’s GDP to advance the zero emissions economy.

3. Rapidly wind down all fossil fuel production and use – FAIL
   Rationale: No plan to rapidly phase out and decommission existing fossil fuel production, use, and exports, coupled with a focus on false solutions that will continue fossil fuel extraction and use, including: blue hydrogen; renewable gas; carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS); carbon offsets; and LNG as a marine fuel.

4. End fossil fuel subsidies and make polluters pay – PROGRESS
   Rationale: B.C. ended the Deep Well Royalty Credit program in 2022, however, new fossil fuel subsidies and incentives to expand fracking were created through B.C.’s Royalty Review.

5. Leave no one behind – PROGRESS
   Rationale: An investment of $134 million to the CleanBC Communities Fund to fund climate action infrastructure projects for Indigenous communities and Local Governments. However, there is no comprehensive plan to support vulnerable communities, including fossil fuel workers, resource-dependent communities, Indigenous or remote communities from the impacts of climate change. The implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act is incoherent and inconsistent.

6. Protect and restore nature – FAIL
   Rationale: No plan to protect 30 percent of terrestrial ecosystems by 2030 and limited progress made to conserve terrestrial ecosystems in recent years, and continued logging of old-growth forests and failure to implement deferrals.

7. Invest in local, organic, regenerative agriculture and food systems – PROGRESS
   Rationale: Currently developing a food security policy framework to mitigate climate impacts on food security, and made a commitment to support Indigenous communities in upholding Indigenous food sovereignty in the Climate Preparedness and Adaptation Strategy.

8. Accelerate the transition to zero emission transportation – PROGRESS
   Rationale: CleanBC Roadmap to 2030 committed to reduce distances traveled in light-duty vehicles by 25 percent by 2030, compared to 2020, which is an important, and very ambitious target that sets the standard for other provinces to follow. Accelerated the goal of zero emissions for all new vehicles from 2040 to 2035.

9. Accelerate the transition to zero emission buildings – FAIL
   Rationale: No commitment to end natural gas heating in new buildings until 2030, no plan to eliminate fossil fuel heating by 2035, and no plan to build new affordable zero emissions buildings.

10. Track and report progress on these actions every year – FAIL
    Rationale: The Minister’s annual Climate Change Accountability Report does not comply with its own climate legislation because it fails to explain how B.C.’s climate plans will achieve its 2025, 2040, 2050 targets and the 2030 oil and gas sector target, leaving the public unable to hold B.C. accountable for its progress (or lack of progress) to these targets.

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Allison Murray
Communications Consultant

T 604-442-1846

E allison@MurrayCommunications.org