Western Climate Initiative
The Western Climate Initiative (WCI) was created in February 2007 by the governors of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington with the long-term commitment to reduce regional GHGs and fight climate change by focusing on a market-based cap and trade system.
British Columbia's Greenhouse Gas Reduction (Cap and Trade) Act enabled it to be the first Canadian province to join the WCI in April 2007. Since that time, Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba have joined, along with Utah and Montana.
The WCI is now the largest climate collaboration in North America, representing approximately 20 per cent of the U.S. economy, 73 per cent of Canada’s economy, and 50 per cent of all GHG emissions in Canada.
WCI partners represent a combined population of close to 85 million people, and if you include the observer jurisdictions, the number jumps to 115 million.
The Climate Action Secretariat leads B.C.’s WCI negotiating team and is the Canadian Liaison of WCI. The Canadian Liaison is the primary contact on behalf of all Canadian WCI partners for interaction with the federal government and other state, provincial, and regional cap and trade initiatives. It also chairs the WCI’s Offset Committee and the Economic Modeling Committee and supports the Cap Setting & Allowance Distribution Committee, the Reporting Committee, the Markets Committee and the Complimentary Policies Committee.
WCI Progress
2008
In September 2008, the WCI released its proposed design for a comprehensive regional cap and trade program to reduce GHG emissions by 15 percent below 2005 levels.
Key elements include:
- A start date of January 1, 2012
- Coverage of all GHGs from sources over 25,000 tonnes per year including:
- fossil fuel combustion from electricity generation
- imported electricity
- fossil fuel combustion from industry (large final emitters)
- industrial process emissions (not currently covered by the carbon tax)
- Limited ability for offsets
2009
On February 19, 2009, the WCI posted its 2009 Work Plan, which describes the series of draft documents for stakeholder review that move forward on the next stage of design. As the WCI finalizes its cap and trade design, B.C. continues to seek stakeholder input on the regulations involved, based on its work as a partner in the WCI. The cap and trade program will work in harmony with B.C.’s tax regime to slash greenhouse gas emissions, spur growth in new green technologies and help build a strong clean-energy economy. To view the proposed design and the 2009 Work Plan, please visit the Western Climate Initiative.
2010
WCI Partner jurisdictions will release the Detailed Program Design for the WCI Regional Cap-and-Trade Program on July 27, 2010. The design is the culmination of much of WCI's work and stakeholder input since the release of the September 2008 recommendations for a cap-and-trade program.
A stakeholder call will publicly review the design. For call details, please visit the Western Climate Initiative. You'll also find the recently updated economic analysis on the website, which shows that WCI's design can achieve the regional GHG emission reduction goal and realize a cost savings of approximately US$100 billion by 2020.
B.C. will build off WCI's work through consultation papers regarding an emissions trading regulation and an offsets regulation, scheduled to be released in September, 2010.
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