WCELA Submission on Clean Growth Intentions Papers

In August 2018, the BC government asked for public feedback on their “Clean Growth” intentions papers, which set out next steps in addressing climate change through “Clean, Efficient Buildings,” “Clean Transportation” and “Clean Growth for Industry.”

WCEL's submission highlights that BC desperately needs true climate change accountability laws that create a framework to coordinate between those various climate-change programs and to judge how stringent each program and standard must be to ensure that we will meet our climate targets.

The government needs to hear that there is public demand for:

• A permanent, independent, science-based watchdog that will advise the government on how to achieve its targets, and monitor its progress.
• 5-year carbon budgets (targets that lay out the maximum tonnes of GHGs that we can afford to emit in order to meet our targets, which are helpful for planning purposes).
• A legal requirement of government to develop a plan on how to achieve the carbon budgets.
• Legal requirements to ensure that government decisions under the Environmental Assessment Act and the Environmental Management Act are consistent with achieving future carbon budgets.
• Meaningful public reporting on progress towards achieving the carbon budgets.