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Environmental advisers set targets to meet B.C.'s promised decline in emissions |
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Written by Sean Patrick Sullivan, THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Thursday, 07 August 2008 |
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VANCOUVER - The blue-ribbon panel advising British Columbia's government on its plan to cut greenhouse-gas emissions on Wednesday set out its recommended targets for the province to follow.
The provincial government's plan is to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by one-third by 2020.
The targets, recommended by the panel, include a decline in emissions of between five to seven per cent below 2007 levels by 2012, and a decline of at least 15 per cent by 2016.
The team of scientists, corporate executives and community leaders were following up on a June climate action report that set out a number of B.C.'s environmental policies including the controversial carbon tax, which on July 1 added about 2.4 cents per litre on all fuels.
That 126-page document took the province 73 per cent toward its 2020 goal, Premier Gordon Campbell said at the time. Wednesday's report is expected to fill in the gaps.
"(The group) is putting us on track, on an increasingly downward slope towards 2020," Environment Minister Barry Penner said Wednesday.
While Penner praised the group for its work, he said a two-month public review process and further scrutiny by the government will decide which of the suggestions become government policy.
The 31 recommendations are wide-ranging, including a further increase in the carbon tax by 2012 to meet that of other jurisdictions, more efficient use of rail and transport trucking, and developing a surplus of energy. The panel also calls for an increase in the low-carbon fuel standard from 10 per cent to 15 per cent by 2020, which would force gas companies to cut carbon emissions in their fuel.
Guy Dauncey, president of the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association, said he welcomed the recommendations but said the B.C. government may regret waiting until 2016 or 2020 before the policies are in place.
"The later you leave it, the cheaper things are, and the more the rest of the world is ahead of you so you just jump on the bandwagon," Dauncey said.
"On the other hand it doesn't show leadership. But leadership is what brings you the jobs and the technical innovation and the patents and the income."
The panel also recommends that all new publicly funded buildings have net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. By 2020, that should be extended to all new houses and buildings, the group said.
Another would see all houses and buildings slapped with energy-efficiency ratings when sold or transferred, with the cost of an assessment being passed on to the buyer.
Penner said such a program may force people to rethink the cost of owning a home.
"Today a lot of people spend time dwelling on their mortgage rates and what their monthly payments will be to service the borrowing, but not much attention is being given to what your ongoing cost will be for energy, or water."
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 07 August 2008 )
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