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Municipalities commit to becoming carbon neutral by 2012

Province outlines plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

More than 200 different resolutions were considered at the recent Union of B.C. Municipalities conference, covering everything from taxes to land use planning. However, the big issue on the agenda this year was climate change, and the new Climate Action Charter.

Some 62 local governments, including municipalities and regional districts, signed onto the charter, committing to making local government operations carbon neutral by 2012. That includes municipal fleets, buildings, public transit, and other operations.

A handful of municipal governments and regional districts did not sign on, including the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District. In most cases the decision not to sign was made so local governments would have an opportunity to study the charter more closely.

In the SLRD’s case, the board is waiting to see what municipal governments in Pemberton, Squamish, Whistler and Lillooet are planning in order to plan a unified approach for the corridor.

Whistler, which was presented with an award at the UBCM as one of B.C.’s greenest communities, has signed onto the Charter. Although the municipality is already taking steps to monitor and address greenhouse gas emissions, Mayor Ken Melamed says council recognized the Charter as a welcome addition to their plans.

“I thought and the council thought… that it was worth signing on to the charter,” said Melamed. “It’s absolutely a step in the right direction because it sets goals and targets and asks municipalities to first acknowledge climate change, and then make commitments to reducing greenhouse gases.

“For Whistler it was easy to agree, because we’re actually well down that road, but anytime we can recommit to those targets and showcase what we’re doing to help inspire others is a good thing.”

The Climate Action Charter was tabled just months after the provincial government signed onto an agreement with six western U.S. state government and the province of Manitoba to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 15 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020. To accomplish this, the signatories to the Western Climate Initiative agreed to implement a cap and trade system that would nudge governments towards the goal, as well as universally adopting California’s tailpipe standards.

That target is in keeping with the provincial government’s previous commitment to be carbon neutral by 2010, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the province by 33 per cent by 2020.

Most environmental groups are in favour of the initiative in principle, but have criticized the initiative as being too lenient compared to more aggressive plans such as the Kyoto Protocol.

However, they have also praised the fact that the plan actually has teeth — including market-based mechanisms for capping and trading emissions. The details will be announced in the coming weeks.

“Is it everything we would have liked to see? No. Does it go further than we expected by creating real penalties? Absolutely,” said Ian Bruce, a climate change analyst for the David Suzuki Foundation.

“The timelines are maybe not as aggressive as we would like to see, and we still believe Kyoto is probably the best model we have, but I can see other jurisdictions getting on board with this plan if it works. I’ll be looking forward to the monitoring reports.”

Premier Gordon Campbell also recognized the level of commitment involved to comply with the WCI agreement.

“Membership in the WCI means having an aggressive GHG target for your jurisdiction, adopting California tailpipe standards, participating in a cross-border GHG registry, and working together on a regional cap and trade system to help meet our targets,” said Campbell.

“In this coming fall session, we intend to legislate the 2020 target, as well as target for 2050. The bill will also require us to establish legally binding emissions reductions targets for 2012 and 2016.”

To accomplish those goals the province is creating a “blue ribbon” team of environmental leaders, private companies, scientists, First Nations and academics to provide advice. The Climate Action Team will determine the most credible, aggressive and economically viable sector targets by July of 2008.

Next spring B.C. also plans to become the first province in Canada to require hard caps on greenhouse gas emissions, and to implement a cap and trade system that imposes financial penalties on governments and businesses in the WCI that fall behind standards. Essentially, companies and governments will be required to buy carbon credits from other companies and jurisdictions that exceed the mandated greenhouse gas reductions until their own operations are up to par.

The province will be holding symposiums with forestry, mining, energy, waste and landfill, and agriculture sectors over the next few months to explain the WCI and what help and technology is available. As well, the province has mandated that all government travel be carbon neutral starting this year, and will introduce legislation that will require all entities of the province and Crown agencies to be carbon neutral by 2010.

The provincial government has also set up a new B.C. Carbon Trust. For every tonne of greenhouse gas (GHG) produced by the provincial government, agencies will pay $25 into valid carbon offset programs within the province. Programs include energy efficiency projects, renewable energy projects, or carbon sequestration through reforestation.

Other provincial strategies include:

• Requiring GHG reduction strategies and targets in all official community plans and regional growth strategies.

• Giving municipalities the power to waive development cost charges to encourage green developments, small unit housing and small lot subdivisions.

• All new government buildings and facilities will be built to a minimum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold standard.

• California tailpipe emission standards, the toughest in North America, will be phased in from 2009 to 2016.

• B.C. will be the first province in Canada to legally adopt California’s low carbon fuel content standards, which will reduce carbon intensity of vehicles by another 10 per cent by 2020.

• B.C. will implement a five per cent average renewable fuel standard for diesel by 2010 and support the federal government’s plan to increase the ethanol content of gas to five per cent by 2010.

• The province will provide $50 million to B.C. Transit to purchase new, clean buses and expand public transit service.