According to B.C.’s 2024 climate change accountability report released last week, the province will only meet half of its 2030 target to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
For some, it’s proof that our carbon tax was ineffective, that we’ve been wasting money on initiatives like CleanBC and that, going forward, we should therefore do nothing about climate change.
For others, it’s proof our policies so far have only been half measures and that we should therefore redouble our efforts.
Bizarrely, B.C.’s NDP government is looking more like the former and less like the latter.
The very next day, the same provincial government announced that it would be hitting the brakes on its rebate program for people buying electric vehicles. And in April, Premier David Eby reduced the carbon tax on consumer products to zero.
B.C. was once a leader in pricing carbon pollution and encouraging the adoption of EVs, but it seems the reality of fighting climate change is colliding with the reality of 2025’s pocketbook politics.
If we are going to meet our climate mandates and give future generations the world they deserve, it’s because we’ve learned to tackle the problem on the demand side. The largest sources of emissions from consumers are our tailpipes and home heating. The technology to replace our carbon-intensive machines and infrastructure with zero-emission alternatives is already here.
These financial incentives and disincentives were having real-world impacts in the choices British Columbians were making. If we want people to choose more sustainable options, we must make those options more attractive than the status quo.
We just need governments that have the courage to make that transition happen.
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