B.C. spent $3.5B to reduce carbon emissions over 7 years. That plan has failed
CleanBC sought to cut greenhouse gases, but emissions are the same as they were in 2007. The province says emissions targets are no longer ‘workable’ — advocates say B.C.’s push for LNG projects is part of the problem
The LNG Canada facility in Kitimat, B.C., will be the most emissions-intensive LNG project in the province. Critics wonder how B.C. will reconcile its goal of lowering emissions with a simultaneous push to expand the LNG sector.
British Columbia has failed to reduce carbon emissions despite a $3.5-billion investment in the CleanBC program over seven years, and the government is hinting the lauded program may be scrapped or overhauled.
As of last December, the province’s emissions were almost exactly the same as they were in 2007.
Briefing notes released on Feb. 28 for B.C.’s new minister of environment and parks, Tamara Davidson, say the original CleanBC goals are “no longer accurate or workable.”
The CleanBC program, established in 2018, aimed to reduce the province’s emissions by 16 per cent by 2025. The province invested $2.3 billion when the program launched and allocated another $1.2 billion in 2022.
“For all the money spent on the CleanBC program, it has completely failed to reduce our GHG emissions since 2017,” Richard Mason, a former commissioner with the British Columbia Utilities Commission, noted in a March blog post.
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The briefing documents for Davidson blame the failure to meet targets on several policies the government changed, resulting in “significantly less emission reduction than initially modelled.” The documents appear to list those policies on a page that was redacted from the version that was made public.
Revelations about the CleanBC program come as Eby’s government moved quickly to scrap the consumer carbon tax following Prime Minister Mark Carney’s March 14 announcement that federal carbon pricing will end for consumers.
“I understand some of you might be like, ‘Well, it’s good for affordability, but what about the climate?’ ” Eby said when he made his carbon tax announcement the same day. “We are going to continue to make sure that big polluters pay, and it’s not because we want to tax these industries. It’s because we want them to adopt the technologies to reduce the carbon pollution that’s changing our atmosphere.”
Jens Wieting, senior policy and science advisor with Sierra Club BC, questioned how the B.C. government will reconcile its push to expand the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry with its goal to reduce emissions.
“We cannot afford to address one crisis, the trade war, in a way that makes another crisis worse,” Wieting told The Narwhal. He pointed out Canada is already paying billions to address climate disasters.
“Scientists are telling us that every tenth of the degree matters,” he said. “Yes, right now it looks like B.C. is nowhere close to meeting our 2025 and 2030 targets. But we absolutely have to get as close as possible.”
B.C. Premier David Eby announced the province’s plans to repeal the carbon tax for consumers but not for industry. Photo: Province of B.C. / Flickr
Jeremy Valeriote, interim leader of the BC Green Party, told The Narwhal in a statement the party’s agreement with the NDP includes a full review of the CleanBC program in 2025, and they are finalizing the terms of reference.
“The challenges with CleanBC outcomes are well known to the BC Green caucus,” he said. “The CleanBC review will include all aspects of the program — everything is on the table with respect to updating the program to realize the emissions reductions we need, and increase accountability and transparency in meeting our climate targets.”
The BC Conservatives did not respond to a request for comment.
B.C.’s 2022 carbon emissions almost the same as 2007
The briefing notes also say a 2024 climate accountability report — which outlines the government’s steps to reduce emissions — will use different modelling than in previous years, since the original goals are not feasible. The government has not released the 2024 report yet and said it will be published in spring.
The pending accountability report covers the period from April 2023 to March 2024. Following the re-election of the BC NDP last fall, the newly named Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions took over responsibility for the accountability reports.
The government “remains committed to transparency in climate reporting,” and transitioning to a low-carbon economy, the ministry told The Narwhal in an emailed statement.
B.C. forecasted 2022 emissions would be equivalent to between 61.6 and 64.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. But the province emitted 65.6 million tonnes that year, slightly more than the 2007 level — 65.5 million tonnes — when reporting started.
The 2022 total was also higher than the 63.8 million tonnes emitted in 2021. A 2021 Nature paper estimated a million tonnes is “roughly equal to the average annual emissions of 35 commercial airliners, 216,000 passenger vehicles and 115,000 homes” in the U.S.
The briefing notes say B.C. likely also emitted 65.6 million tonnes in 2024.
The NDP’s CleanBC program was created in 2018. It aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030.
Other targets included a 75 per cent reduction in methane emissions and zero carbon buildings for all new construction by 2030, and ensuring B.C. is net zero by 2050.
The ministry said emissions per person have gone down since 2007, and companies are investing in clean technology and improving efficiency.
“CleanBC is driving real progress,” the statement said. “Many CleanBC actions take time to show results, as markets transform, but we are already seeing change.” It said zero-emission vehicles make up nearly 23 per cent of new sales and methane emissions in oil and gas have decreased.
“The cost of inaction on climate change — wildfires, flooding and extreme heat — far outweigh the cost of investment,” it said.
Advocates worry industry execs will benefit, average people will be left ‘hurting’
B.C.’s 2023 climate accountability report, which summarizes the period from April 2022 to March 2023, pegs COVID-19 and population growth as reasons for rising emissions. It says emissions could still remain below 2007 levels and “continue to trend downwards” if all CleanBC policies are fully implemented.
It also says CleanBC programs and policies are “expected to reduce emissions in the coming years as they scale up.” A government webpage, updated last December, still affirms B.C.’s commitment to reducing emissions by 16 per cent in 2025.
Wieting worries the BC NDP government may come to a conclusion they “might as well give up” since they’re not on track.
He said B.C. took good steps, like increasing infrastructure for electric vehicles and expanding support for heat pumps. Pursuing the seven approved and planned liquefied natural gas projects in B.C. will “undercut” any progress CleanBC made by adding significant emissions, he argued.
LNG Canada, B.C.’s first liquefied natural gas export facility, will send its first shipments overseas this year. Photo: Marty Clemens / The Narwhal
“This is deeply unfair, because we have a lot of people in British Columbia who are concerned about climate change, who are going along with the program, installing the heat pumps, maybe they got an electric car or they got rid of their car, and it’s sad that all these collective efforts are overshadowed by big fossil fuel projects and big oil lobbying throwing us back to square one,” he said.
Isabel Siu-Zmuidzinas, climate campaigner for the Wilderness Committee, said CleanBC had “honourable goals” but the program had no “teeth,” given B.C.’s continuing investments in fossil fuels.
To Siu-Zmuidzinas, the NDP’s rhetoric around cutting red tape for energy and resource projects is similar to U.S. President Donald Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” slogan.
“These actions may be dressed up in different words, but it’s basically the same thing,” she said.
She said people may support fast-tracking energy and resource projects, hoping to bolster B.C.’s sovereignty, but she fears a select few will financially benefit, and “it’s gonna be the public hurting.”
“We’ve already seen people lose their homes and climate change exacerbate weather events like wildfires and floods,” Siu-Zmuidzinas added.
“People have lost their lives in the heat dome here in this province. It’s costing us in mitigation. It’s costing us on adaptation. So, you have to start to wonder — what is it going to take for anyone to take this seriously?”
— With files from Shannon Waters
A graph shows B.C.’s emissions sitting around 20 to 26 per cent above 1990 levels over the years, with a dip and bounce back from COVID-19. Meanwhile, Canada and other countries made more progress reducing emissions. The graph is from the 2024 Progress Report, adapted from a chart Barry Saxifrage made for Visual Carbon and Canada’s National Observer. Illustration: Supplied by BC Climate Emergency Campaign
Updated at 12:45 p.m. PT: This story has been updated to include an emailed statement from the Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions, which was supplied after our publication deadline.
Another year of keeping a close watch
Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.
And in 2024, our stories were raised in parliaments across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.
In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”
Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.
And in 2024, our stories were raised in parliaments across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.
In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”
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