Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Take the BC Climate Action Leadership Survey

The BC government is working towards the creation of a “Climate Leadership Plan”. This plan will supersede the earlier 2008 “Climate Action Plan” which included the carbon tax. Since the introduction of the carbon tax, the provincial government hasn’t really done much else to reduce GHG emissions or adapt to our changing climate. BC’s carbon tax was effective in reducing GHG emissions, but GHG emissions have actually started to increase again.

BC’s Historic GHG emissions, GDP and future targets. From Climate Leadership Discussion Guide. Select chart to enlarge.

Earlier this year, the province put together a “Climate Leadership Team” which includes members of the provincial government, academia, local government, environmental groups, First Nations, and resource-based businesses. They have been tasked with creating a new plan to address climate change in BC.

Since the province seems to be fixated with creating a LNG industry which will dwarf all other GHG emissions in this province, it will be interesting to see if the new “Climate Leadership Plan” will actually do anything meaningful.

Right now, the province has released a decision guide and is looking for feedback via an online survey which will be up until August 17th. The decision guide talks very generally on how we live, travel, work, and what we value, and how that impacts climate change. The guide also looks at some tools that can be used to reduce GHG emissions and adapt to climate change. The online survey is looking to gauge how people feel about ways to reduce GHG and adapted to climate change.

I completed the survey in about 10 minutes. If you have time, I suggest that you complete the survey too.

A draft “Climate Leadership Plan” is suppose to be released around Christmas. There will be a chance for public feedback on the draft plan. The final plan is expected to be released in March 2016.

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