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Climate change front and centre at UBCM

Municipalities to work with provincial targets through Climate Action Charter

Mayors and councillors from across B.C. will meet in Vancouver next week at the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) annual conference to discuss dozens of issues relating to local government. However, the overriding theme this year is climate change.

Earlier this year 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, agreeing to implement a cap and trade system to nudge governments towards the goal. That target is in keeping with the provincial government’s commitment to be carbon neutral by 2010, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the province by 33 per cent by 2020.

The B.C. government is asking municipalities to help the province reach that goal by signing onto a Climate Action Charter, with local governments agreeing to nine resolutions that will allow them to reach certain targets within their own jurisdictions.

Whistler is already taking steps to monitor and address greenhouse gas emissions through the Whistler 2020 strategy, but Mayor Ken Melamed says the Climate Action Charter is a welcome addition to their plans.

“I thought and the council thought on Monday night 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.”

Whistler’s greenhouse gas emissions are actually increasing, according to the latest monitoring reports, largely because of the continued growth of the resort community and increasing number of vehicles on the road. Strategies to address the issue include burning off the gas produced by the landfill, switching fleet vehicles to natural gas, increasing transit, implementing efficient building standards, and phasing in programs to discourage vehicle use on the highway and within the resort. Plans to offset greenhouse gases are also being looked into.

The nine recommendations in the charter include officially acknowledging a common definition of climate change; acknowledging that local governments have an important role in addressing climate change; accepting the charter as the common template for addressing climate change; recognizing a series of shared goals between municipalities and other jurisdictions of government; committing to reducing emissions by accepting goals and targets; agreeing to back their commitments by supporting the creation of a Green Communities Committee and working groups; adopting common approaches to reductions that come out of the Green Communities Committee; to monitor their own actions and commitments to achieving reductions goals. The ninth recommendation is that the charter will not be legally binding, or constitute a legal obligation.

The appendix of the charter also asks municipalities to submit a list of the things they are already doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

One of the specific targets set out in the charter is for local governments to become carbon neutral in their operations by 2012.

That target is more aggressive than Whistler’s own projections, notes Melamed. “That’s part of what it does, raising the bar for municipalities and councillors to take more aggressive action and not shy away from other challenges.”

The province signed the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) along with Manitoba, Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Utah. Alberta has opted out of the plan, which has also been publicly opposed by U.S. President George Bush.

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. “The more partners we unite now in meeting these objectives, the better off our countries and world will be in decades to come. I am urging other Canadian provinces to participate in this initiative to create a single, continental market for carbon trading.”

At the recent Council of Federation meeting in New Brunswick, leaders of 12 of 13 provinces and territories committed to the objective of implementing California tailpipe emissions standards (Ontario was opposed, citing the needs of the province’s automobile manufacturing industry), while B.C., Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba also committed to a cap and trade system. Alberta opposed the cap and trade system.

In addition to the eight jurisdictions that have committed to the WCI, four other U.S. states (Colorado, Kansas, Nevada and Wyoming), Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and the Mexican state of Sonora are participating at the WCI as observers. All may join the WCI as full members in the future.

B.C. has already announced a GHG reduction target of 33 per cent below current levels by 2020, which would put emissions 10 per cent below 1990 levels — a level exceeding Canada’s commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to cut emissions by six per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.

To date Canada’s emissions have increased about 27 per cent since 1990, and would require a 33 per cent decrease in the next five years to comply with Kyoto — something Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s federal government has said is impossible.