Results are in from the review of B.C.’s signature climate policy, Clean B.C., and the prescription is for the province to do more to accelerate the clean energy transition.
The review was conducted as part of the deal between the B.C. Green Party to provide legislative support to the governing NDP.
The report urges the government to ensure that some portion of revenues from natural gas projects is put toward clean energy projects. And other revenues from initiatives such as industrial carbon pricing ought to be put into a climate action fund, rather than general revenues, say report authors Merran Smith and Dan Woynillowicz.
Along with these prescriptive measures, the report warns that the massive push for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) development presents problems of “inescapable emissions math.”
“While current policy tools support reducing the gas sector’s [greenhouse gas] intensity, the pace and scale of incremental climate pollution from new LNG projects, and increased gas production and transportation to supply them, would negate reductions from other sectors,” the report says.
Smith and Woynillowicz also question both the projected future economic benefits of LNG development and whether selling cleaner B.C.-made LNG to other countries actually replaces dirtier fuels.
“There needs to be a broader discussion about what the province’s economic future looks like,” Woynillowicz said.
More to come.