On August 19, 2016, the BC government released its long-awaited Climate Leadership Plan, which updates the province’s earlier Climate Action Plan (2008). The plan follows the release of the government-appointed Climate Leadership Team’s (CLT) recommendations in November 2015 and sets out 21 actions to reduce emissions across five areas: (1) natural gas, (2) transportation, (3) forestry and agriculture, (4) communities and built environment, and (5) public sector.
The CLT had made 32 recommendations including, among others, the establishment of a mid-term 2030 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target and a reduction in the provincial sales tax from 7% to 6%, which would be offset by an increase in the carbon tax by $10 per year commencing in July 2018. While the Climate Leadership Plan has been informed by some of the recommendations made by CLT and feedback received from the public and stakeholders, the plan focuses on actions that will enable BC to achieve its legislated target of reducing emissions 80% below 2007 levels by 2050. In so doing, the Climate Leadership Plan bypasses BC’s 2020 target of achieving a reduction in GHG emissions of 33% below 2007 levels. The BC government has declined to set a mid-term target and will keep the province’s revenue neutral carbon tax at $30 per tonne until the federal government’s approach to carbon pricing is revealed.
The key actions in the Climate Leadership Plan include the following:
Communities & Built Environment
- Working together with local governments to refresh the Climate Action Charter, with a particular focus on: (i) growth near major transit corridors for large urban communities; (ii) increasing the use of decision support tools that provide the information needed to create more resilient green infrastructure; and (iii) strengthening the ability of communities to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
- Amending regulations to promote more energy efficient buildings.
- Creating a waste-to-resource strategy to reduce waste sent to landfill and establishing a food waste prevention target of 30% and increasing organics diverted from landfills to 90%.
Public Sector
- Promoting the use of low carbon and renewable materials in public sector buildings.
- Mandating the creation of 10-year emission reduction and adaptation plans for provincial public sector operations.
Transportation
- Increasing the requirements for BC’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard to 15% by 2030 (it currently requires a reduction in the carbon intensity of transportation fuels by 10% by 2020 (relative to 2010)).
- Amending regulations to encourage emission reductions in transportation by allowing utilities to double the total pool of incentives available to convert commercial fleets to natural gas, when the new incentives go towards vehicles using 100% natural gas.
- Expanding support for zero emission vehicle charging stations in buildings through the Clean Energy Vehicle program.
Forestry & Agriculture
- Rehabilitating under-productive forests, recovering more wood fibre, and avoiding emissions from burning slash; these actions will be taken through the new Forest Carbon Initiative, which will seek to increase the rate of replanting and fiber recovery by 20,000 hectares per year.
Industry & Utilities
- Developing new energy efficiency standards for gas-fired boilers.
- Facilitating projects that will help fuel marine vessels and commercial vehicles with natural gas.
Natural Gas
- Developing a strategy to reduce upstream methane emissions, including targets for reducing fugitive and vented emissions from extraction and processing infrastructure (built before January 1, 2015) by 45% by 2025.
- Investing in infrastructure to develop upstream electrification of several projects, including the Peace Region Electricity Supply Project, North Montney Power Supply Project and others.
The BC government has said that the Climate Leadership Plan is a living document that will be further updated over the coming year. The plan will likely be updated to reflect federal climate change policy developments once the working groups that were established at the First Ministers’ meeting in March 2016 report back in October 2016 (working groups were established to study (a) clean technology, innovation and jobs, (b) carbon pricing mechanisms, (c) mitigation opportunities, and (d) adaptation and climate resilience).