For the past several years I have chaired the B.C. Municipal Climate Leadership Council, a group of mayors and councillors from across the province working on moving climate change action forward as good public policy.
Anticipating the coming impacts of climate change is critical work as the risk lines blur between natural disasters emanating from earthquakes and tsunamis, and those generated by changing conditions due to climate change.
Land slippage risk, for example, increases with changing rainfall intensities through global warming. And massive greenhouse gas releases from melting Arctic permafrost will accelerate global warming and in turn influence precipitation patterns.
It is important on the local level that we invest in infrastructure that will withstand shifting risks, and that we make long-term policy decisions that recognize and reduce our contribution to climate instability.
The mayors’ leadership council is non-partisan and works with other levels of government to harmonize policy positions and, sometimes, challenge policy shortcomings. For example, recently one of our MLAs wrote that “Right now energy generated in B.C. is almost completely clean and renewable (97.9 per cent),” and that “the B.C. Climate Action Plan will see the province achieve 100 per cent renewable energy.”
This statement is accurate for electricity, but electricity only accounts for 30 per cent of all energy use across residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural sectors. If we include transportation in the mix, the net result is that greenhouse gas-intensive fossil fuels still account for the majority, over 62 per cent, of all energy use in B.C. Meanwhile, on the world stage, more than 20 countries have been able to grow their economies while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions from all sources of energy. This is where we should be heading in B.C.
From 2008 (when the B.C. carbon tax was introduced) to 2012, B.C. became a climate action leader within Canada. However recent policy direction is seemingly reversing this. Allowing a stagnant policy to persist while waiting for other provinces and regions to catch up will likely result in erosion of the competitive advantage our province currently enjoys.
B.C. will lose the momentum generated by the birth of our innovative clean-tech sector, which now directly and indirectly employs more than 123,000 people and contributes $15 billion to the province’s Gross Domestic Product. Those job figures include people working at the 156 renewable-energy projects operating or under construction around B.C., and the more than 200 companies selling their products around the world.
Our province would best continue its leadership efforts if it advanced greenhouse gas reduction while allowing our clean energy sector to leverage its growing expertise to supply more of our energy needs. This way the province could ensure B.C. continues its leadership based on solid public policy specifically designed to address climate change.
To my colleagues I say, let’s not slide backwards, let’s continue to be leaders on climate change at all levels of government in Canada.
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