Download Comments due by March 26, 2016 Climate leadership report and

Comments due by March 26, 2016
Climate leadership report and recommendations
http://engage.gov.bc.ca/climateleadership/files/2015/11/CLT-recommendations-togovernment_Final.pdf
Email for comments
[email protected]
"mailto:claire.trevena.MLA"@leg.bc.ca
Please accept and consider these comments on The Climate Leadership Team Recommendations.
First off, nice work! I’m impressed by the recommendations as a whole and support the adoption of
all of them, except insofar as they use public funds to support the LNG industry.
1) 2020 Goal. I am disappointed that BC is abandoning its 2020 goal. The Clark administration
had the opportunity to take timely action to meet distant targets. Its failure to do this
tarnishes the province’s credibility on climate action and puts the efficacy of the current
process in question.
2) Recommendation 5 - Increase the carbon tax. I strongly support recommencement of the
annual increase of the carbon tax in 2018 by $10/year. The climate news makes me worry
that it may be too little too late. But the 5 year review will provide the opportunity for
upward adjustment to reduce GHG emissions if necessary to prevent runaway climate
change.
3) Recommendation 6- Expand the carbon tax now. I strongly support the expansion of the
carbon tax to include non-combustion sources of carbon pollution, including aviation. This
should be done in 2016 rather than 2021. The subject industries have seen climate action
coming for a very long time. It was their decision to bet on climate tragedy and they bear the
consequences of taking this risk, not the public.
4) Recommendations 5 c) and 7 a) and 8-No more protection for bad actors. I do not
support measures to protect high emission trade exposed industries from competitive
disadvantage relative to other jurisdictions. These industries bear the risk for poor decision
making in the several decades during which knowledge of climate change has harbingered
the end of high GHG businesses. They received a lot of short term gain for those decisions.
The public should not be expected to bail them out. These industries should not be exempt
from PST on electricity rates. These bad actors may lose out but the economy as a whole
will benefit in the long term. In particular, I oppose using the carbon tax to fund companies
that produce and use natural gas. Natural gas funding is government support for a fossil fuel
economy. Carbon tax funds should be used exclusively for renewables.
5) Recommendation 11 - Social cost of carbon. I strongly support inclusion of the social cost
of carbon in Environmental Assessments. For fossil fuel industries, this should include
emissions at the point of burning in addition to production emissions.
6) Recommendation 12 - Clean energy target. I strongly support increasing the clean energy
target to 100 per cent by 2025. Natural gas, however, is not a clean energy. The definition
should be revised to include only renewable energy sources.
7) Recommendation 13 - First Nations electricity. I strongly support the recommendation
to phase out diesel generation in remote communities.
8) Recommendations 14 and 15 - Natural Gas and LNG. I strongly oppose the development
of LNG in BC. Natural gas displaces renewables due its lower cost. There is no clear
accounting of its lifetime emissions in BC. Some estimates in other jurisdictions state that it
is worse than coal. It ruins water tables and thus destroys a resource that is increasingly
precious in a climate destabilized world. If the province is serious about climate mitigation
and adaptation, it must withdraw all support from this destructive industry. The carbon tax
should be immediately applied to natural gas and LNG to help offset the externalization of
its very high long term costs onto the public.
9) Recommendations 16-18 - Forestry and Agriculture. I support further study as
suggested in the recommendations, but a few things seem obvious even now. Forestry
policies need to reflect the building policy recommendation: that we want more BC wood in
our buildings because it sequesters carbon. To do this, we need to recreate the value added
incentives that were disassembled over the past two decades and stop exporting raw logs.
In addition, to counteract the destructive impact of climate change on forest health
(increased wildfires and pests), we need to lower the AAC and encourage the forests to
regenerate the characteristics of the more resilient old growth forests. Such forests hold
vast amounts of water and create tempered microclimates. We need this as summer
droughts become the norm.
10) Recommendation 19 a) – d) - Transportation. I strongly support the transportation
recommendations. However, aviation should not be exempted from low carbon fuel
standards or the carbon tax. This ever-expanding high emission industry needs price signals
to bring it in line with BC and global GHG targets. I also suggest expediting the schedule of
targets for sale of Zero Emission Vehicles. Once EV infrastructure is in place, there will be no
barrier to complete EV adoption. Building out such infrastructure could be done in less than
a decade. There should be no funding for any fossil fuel vehicles such as those running on
natural gas and propane.
11) Recommendation 19 e) - Car PST based on CO2/km. I strongly support this
recommendation. Ferries and parking fees should be calibrated to emissions as well.
12) Recommendation 10 - Buildings. These recommendations are terrific and I strongly
support them.
13) Recommendations 21-24 - Communities. I strongly support rural transportation
strategies, updated hazard mapping, improved monitoring systems and systematic
communication of climate risks to rural populations.
14) Recommendations 25-27 - First Nations. I strongly support business funds for new
opportunities and modeling of climate impacts on indigenous rights. My understanding of
indigenous right is that they are much more far reaching than these recommendations
acknowledge. Proponents of renewable energy projects on traditional territory should be
required to negotiate First Nation consent. The book Aboriginal Power by Chris Henderson
describes many successful collaborations.