THE province is backing away from its goal that all municipalities that signed the Climate Action Charter would be carbon neutral by 2012.
The province signed the charter with agreeing municipalities, including all three on the North Shore, in 2007 as a requirement for local government to receive their carbon tax payments back. Part of that original agreement stipulated cities and towns would need to be carbon neutral in their corporate operations by 2012.
However a final agreement on how that would be achieved still hasn't been hammered out. Since no municipalities have carbon emissions of zero, all would have to buy offsets of some kind, which has been a key point in negotiations with the province.
That included an option to buy from an offset provider or establish a project locally, but that money couldn't go towards lowering the district's own emissions. But a new "making progress" option would allow municipalities to push back the goal of carbon neutrality and continue to work at lowering their own emissions.
"The province seemed to assume every municipality would just buy offsets and be on their way," said Ken Bennett, manager of environmental planning for the District of North Vancouver, during a recent presentation to council.
He said the district, at request of councillors, has been pushing hard for another option that wouldn't require the district to buy offsets for work outside of municipal boundaries. "This is not fleshed out in any detail yet.
This has only just hit the floor from the province, but the feeling is they've heard us," he said.
Bennett said it would likely be only a limited time offer, likely a few years, and would require municipalities to establish a reserve fund to invest in reducing their corporate carbon emissions while continuing to report back on progress, but all that is subject to negotiation.
All signatory municipalities are already required to report annually to the province. As of June 2010, 178 municipalities and the Islands Trust had signed the agreement.
A spokesman for the province confirmed the negotiations are ongoing, but couldn't comment on specifics. He did, however, emphasize that all the targets are voluntary.
The only municipality so far to achieve carbon neutrality is Harrison Hot Springs.
North Vancouver district emitted nearly 4,800 tonnes of greenhouse gases during the last available audit for 2008. The municipality has a plan to reduce that to 4,300 tonnes by 2012, and to 3,800 tonnes by 2015 - mostly through building retrofits and more efficient vehicles.
If the district had to purchase 4,300 tonnes worth of carbon offsets in 2012, that could cost up to $100,000 depending on the provider, said Bennett.
Caroline Jackson, community energy manger for the City of North Vancouver, said the city is keeping its options open until negotiations are finished, but said they are pleased with the direction it's taking.
"I think one of the challenges has been the timeline, but essentially we have until 2012 to decide," she said.
She said it will be back at council when they have full information, but the city has fewer emissions to grapple with than West Vancouver at about 3,400 tonnes, down from 2008. The city passed a plan in April to reduce emissions to 20 per cent below 2007 levels by 2020.
If required to buy offsets, however, the price tag could still reach $60,000 a year.
West Vancouver's manager of environment and sustainability Stephen Jenkins said he couldn't comment on the specifics until more details are available.
