Climate Action Team
British Columbia’s Climate Action Team was established in November 2007 to help the government reduce provincial greenhouse gas emissions by 33 per cent by 2020. It was made up of some of the province’s best minds, including nine world leaders in the climate sciences.
The team’s mandate was threefold:
- to offer expert advice to the province’s Cabinet Committee on Climate Action on the most credible, aggressive and economically viable targets possible for 2012 and 2016;
- to identify further actions in the short and medium term to reduce emissions and meet the 2020 target; and
- to provide advice on the provincial government’s commitment to become carbon neutral by 2010.
Climate Action Team Report
On August 6, 2008, the Climate Action Team presented its recommendations.
Meeting British Columbia’s Targets: A Report from the B.C. Climate Action Team, establishes economically viable interim targets and recommended comprehensive strategies that will bridge the gap to the 2020 goal.
Independent modelling by M.K. Jaccard and Associates Inc. was used to estimate the emission reductions of some of the recommended policy options put forward by the Climate Action Team. Based on the same conservative assumptions used in the Climate Action Plan, the modelling suggests these policies could reduce emissions by a further eight million tonnes by 2020.
In addition, the Climate Action Team has recommended the following interim targets for 2012 and 2016:
- By 2012, the growth in emissions must be reversed and emissions must begin to decline significantly, to between five and seven per cent below 2007 levels.
- By 2016, the decline in emissions needs to accelerate. Emissions should fall to between 15 and 18 per cent below 2007 levels.
Public consultation of the report closed October 6, 2008. As required by the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act, interim reduction targets of six per cent by 2012 and 18 per cent by 2016 have been set into law.
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