British Columbia has demonstrated to the world that it is possible to drive down carbon pollution while growing the economy. Policies like the carbon tax, clean electricity standard and renewable and low-carbon fuel requirements regulation have helped to drive this change. Unfortunately, British Columbia’s carbon pollution is starting to increase in nearly every sector and is projected to continue increasing without new climate policy, signalling that it’s time to reinvigorate the climate action plan. To this end the Province of British Columbia announced in May 2015 a Climate Leadership Team to provide government with expert advice and recommendations and invited individuals and organizations to provide written submissions about their vision for a new BC climate action plan.
This letter from the Energy Forum, of which West Coast is a member, outlines British Columbia’s success to date on meeting the dual goal of reducing carbon pollution while growing the economy, what a successful climate leadership plan would accomplish and our initial thoughts on the types of government actions that we support to achieve these outcomes.
The Energy Forum is a collaboration of British Columbian power producers, industry associations and non-government organizations that are working together to address the challenges and opportunities presented by the nexus of energy, climate and ecosystems.