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B.C.'s climate plan is badly off track -- Stewart Phillip, Melissa Lem, Kai Nagata, Emiko Newman, Tracey Saxby, Kiki Wood in the Vancouver Sun
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Sid Shniad
May 16, 2025, 3:49:34 PMMay 16
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Vancouver Sun May 16, 2025
B.C.'s climate plan is badly off track
B.C.'s latest Climate Change Accountability Report shows the province is badly off track to reach its legislated pollution targets. And it has no plan to get there
By Stewart Phillip, Melissa Lem, Kai Nagata, Emiko Newman, Tracey Saxby, Kiki Wood
B.C.'s climate plan is badly off track
B.C.'s latest Climate Change Accountability Report shows the province is badly off track to reach its legislated pollution targets. And it has no plan to get there
By Stewart Phillip, Melissa Lem, Kai Nagata, Emiko Newman, Tracey Saxby, Kiki Wood
Cooling towers used to dissipate heat generated when natural gas is converted into liquefied natural gas are seen under construction at the LNG Canada export terminal in Kitimat in September 2022. Photo by DARRYL DYCK /THE CANADIAN PRESSIn December 2018, the B.C. government released its bold new plan to reduce climate pollution and build a low-carbon economy. The CleanBC plan promised a heightened level of ambition and a compelling vision for a future that prioritized green technologies, clean electricity, and decarbonization.
Today, the provincial government admits it is badly off track to reach its legislated pollution targets. And it has no plan to get there. Indeed, new pipelines (owned by American billionaires) and LNG terminals (built largely overseas) would vent even more planet-warming, health-harming gases into the atmosphere, at great cost to the B.C. public.
How did it all go so wrong? At one-time, CleanBC was heralded as the strongest climate plan in North America. The government’s own press release boasted the names of prominent climate advocates and experts — including governors from California and Washington — all lauding B.C.’s climate leadership.
But three years later, many who praised the original plan jointly published a scathing rebuke of B.C.’s progress. “We have lost the confidence we had in the province’s climate plan and are sounding the alarm,” they wrote.
Unfortunately, the situation has only become more dire.
B.C.’s latest Climate Change Accountability Report says the province will miss its 2030 pollution reduction target by 50 per cent. This grim prediction does not account for climate pollution from future LNG terminals.
Climate groups have been attempting to hold the government accountable for such failings with annual progress reports of their own. But this latest admission comes from the government’s own mouth: “B.C.’s current policy landscape does not put us on track to meet our 2030 targets,” the report states. The government blames this failure largely on entirely foreseeable population growth, while admitting that the biggest emissions increases came from commercial transport and fossil fuel production — not B.C. households.
Even so, the province claims it is charting a course in the right direction.
It is nearly impossible for this claim to be true.
First off, B.C.’s consumer carbon tax and rebate system is gone. Scrapping the tax meant losing out on $3 billion in annual revenue used to issue cheques to households and fund rebates for heat pumps and electric cars — rebates that are now on the chopping block.
Premier Eby promised the consumer carbon tax would be replaced by other measures, including strengthening the industrial carbon price on big polluters. Updates are yet to come.
Perhaps even more concerning is the omission of LNG in this latest accountability report. LNG is mentioned only once, a mind-boggling omission considering the province is caught in a frenzy to become a major LNG exporter. B.C. will begin shipping the highly polluting fossil fuel this summer when LNG Canada begins operating in Kitimat.
Cedar LNG (a floating LNG facility under construction in Korea) and Woodfibre LNG (another foreign-owned export facility in Squamish) are next in line, with three more export facilities approved or under review. A massive American-backed pipeline in northern B.C. — the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Line — is also awaiting approval.
If B.C. moves ahead with these new projects, climate pollution will increase not only in B.C. but worldwide. Shipping 47 million tons of LNG overseas annually (as these projects would collectively do) would produce 125 million tons of carbon pollution when the fuel is burned and have significant health impacts in the communities where the gas is fracked.
Importantly, many of these projects are backed by American private equity giants with ties to President Trump, and are facing opposition from First Nations who stand to experience the largest impacts of these projects in their own backyards. The province is disregarding the First Nations people who see what is happening on the ground and want to protect the land and water in their territories. Many First Nations communities are finding innovative ways to respond to the climate crisis by restoring our relationship to the world around us. Instead of supporting these communities, B.C. wants to fast track more projects for the oil and gas industry.
While B.C.’s plan encourages “industrial facilities to connect to clean electricity,” even this requirement is being scaled back as B.C.’s Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions Adrian Dix recently loosened the rules for proposed LNG projects.
Failing to truly bend the curve on our pollution is a broken political imperative and a failure to protect the health of British Columbians. It is a failure to preserve our clean water and clean air, and to acknowledge the voices of First Nations people when it comes to the health of the land.
In 2018, B.C. had a shiny new climate plan. Not anymore. What remains of the CleanBC program is a shambles. If a “plan” means having appropriate targets and a credible pathway to attain such targets, then the sad truth is that B.C. no longer has a climate plan.
The B.C. government must present something new and ambitious to take its place.
Today, the provincial government admits it is badly off track to reach its legislated pollution targets. And it has no plan to get there. Indeed, new pipelines (owned by American billionaires) and LNG terminals (built largely overseas) would vent even more planet-warming, health-harming gases into the atmosphere, at great cost to the B.C. public.
How did it all go so wrong? At one-time, CleanBC was heralded as the strongest climate plan in North America. The government’s own press release boasted the names of prominent climate advocates and experts — including governors from California and Washington — all lauding B.C.’s climate leadership.
But three years later, many who praised the original plan jointly published a scathing rebuke of B.C.’s progress. “We have lost the confidence we had in the province’s climate plan and are sounding the alarm,” they wrote.
Unfortunately, the situation has only become more dire.
B.C.’s latest Climate Change Accountability Report says the province will miss its 2030 pollution reduction target by 50 per cent. This grim prediction does not account for climate pollution from future LNG terminals.
Climate groups have been attempting to hold the government accountable for such failings with annual progress reports of their own. But this latest admission comes from the government’s own mouth: “B.C.’s current policy landscape does not put us on track to meet our 2030 targets,” the report states. The government blames this failure largely on entirely foreseeable population growth, while admitting that the biggest emissions increases came from commercial transport and fossil fuel production — not B.C. households.
Even so, the province claims it is charting a course in the right direction.
It is nearly impossible for this claim to be true.
First off, B.C.’s consumer carbon tax and rebate system is gone. Scrapping the tax meant losing out on $3 billion in annual revenue used to issue cheques to households and fund rebates for heat pumps and electric cars — rebates that are now on the chopping block.
Premier Eby promised the consumer carbon tax would be replaced by other measures, including strengthening the industrial carbon price on big polluters. Updates are yet to come.
Perhaps even more concerning is the omission of LNG in this latest accountability report. LNG is mentioned only once, a mind-boggling omission considering the province is caught in a frenzy to become a major LNG exporter. B.C. will begin shipping the highly polluting fossil fuel this summer when LNG Canada begins operating in Kitimat.
Cedar LNG (a floating LNG facility under construction in Korea) and Woodfibre LNG (another foreign-owned export facility in Squamish) are next in line, with three more export facilities approved or under review. A massive American-backed pipeline in northern B.C. — the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Line — is also awaiting approval.
If B.C. moves ahead with these new projects, climate pollution will increase not only in B.C. but worldwide. Shipping 47 million tons of LNG overseas annually (as these projects would collectively do) would produce 125 million tons of carbon pollution when the fuel is burned and have significant health impacts in the communities where the gas is fracked.
Importantly, many of these projects are backed by American private equity giants with ties to President Trump, and are facing opposition from First Nations who stand to experience the largest impacts of these projects in their own backyards. The province is disregarding the First Nations people who see what is happening on the ground and want to protect the land and water in their territories. Many First Nations communities are finding innovative ways to respond to the climate crisis by restoring our relationship to the world around us. Instead of supporting these communities, B.C. wants to fast track more projects for the oil and gas industry.
While B.C.’s plan encourages “industrial facilities to connect to clean electricity,” even this requirement is being scaled back as B.C.’s Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions Adrian Dix recently loosened the rules for proposed LNG projects.
Failing to truly bend the curve on our pollution is a broken political imperative and a failure to protect the health of British Columbians. It is a failure to preserve our clean water and clean air, and to acknowledge the voices of First Nations people when it comes to the health of the land.
In 2018, B.C. had a shiny new climate plan. Not anymore. What remains of the CleanBC program is a shambles. If a “plan” means having appropriate targets and a credible pathway to attain such targets, then the sad truth is that B.C. no longer has a climate plan.
The B.C. government must present something new and ambitious to take its place.
- Grand Chief Stewart Phillip is president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.
- Dr. Melissa Lem is president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
- Kai Nagata is communications director with Dogwood BC.
- Emiko Newman is coordinator of the BC Climate Emergency Campaign.
- Tracey Saxby is a marine scientist and co-founder of My Sea to Sky. Kiki Wood is a senior oil and gas campaigner with Stand.earth.
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