BC climate plan needs carbon tax hikes, major policy changes, experts say

“Through the Climate Leadership Plan, we are taking strong actions that will ensure we continue to be an global climate leader, and that our province remains a great place to live, work and raise a family”, Polak said.

She says Clark’s sentiment that she has to balance the economy with the environment was already laid out in the recommendations issued by the Climate Leadership Team.

The federal government, along with other provinces, have set new goals following the Paris Agreement last December to reduce emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

The B.C. government has given up on its 2020 goal for greenhouse gas emissions and is looking to tree planting, agricultural efforts and cleaning up the natural gas industry to reach its longer-term goals.

“The proposal to double the carbon tax in just four years, to have it rise to $100 dollars in just eight years and to keep going up, is just one we weren’t able to implement”, Clark said.

The B.C. government will not increase its carbon tax, rejecting a recommendation from a group of advisers to increase the levy to fight climate change.

Stand, the non-profit environmental group formerly known as ForestEthics, responded with disappointment and dismay after the plan was unveiled.

“We address nearly all of the recommendations from our climate leadership team but I should also not that there is one recommendation that we can not implement today and that is the recommendation to increase the carbon tax by 10% per year, starting in 2018”.

The plan also does not expand the carbon tax to include vented and leaked methane emissions from the natural gas sector as recommended by the advisory committee.

“While the plan claims to create a decrease in emissions the actual policies outlined will likely lead to an increase in Carbon dioxide emissions over the next decade”, said Karen Mahon, national director of Stand.

The “heavy lifting” of cutting emissions by 12 million tonnes a year will fall to the forestry and agriculture sector, but there are few details on how that will be achieved, Seitzinger said.

Clark called on other provinces to match B.C.’s rate: “We need to know other provinces intend to catch up with us”.

While policy that reduces greenhouse gas emissions is important in addressing long-term concerns of extreme weather, droughts and forest fires, it also creates new opportunities to develop clean technology and energy, said Josha MacNab, B.C. regional director of the Pembina Institute. “This makes these businesses less competitive”.

“We need to find a way to deal with both of those things, and the plan that the Climate Leadership Team put forward did both of those things”.

Of the team’s 32 recommendations, none has been adopted fully, she said. “Any kind of climate plan has to begin with reducing reliance on fossil fuels”.

“She has announced a plan that will do less, more slowly than British Columbia’s formerly world-leading strategy”, said Heyman said in a statement.

“Right now, its economic performance is clearly not being hampered by a $30 carbon tax”.

Another is that the carbon tax will not be increased in 2018.