FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UNCEDED xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (MUSQUEAM), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (SQUAMISH) AND səlilwətaɬ (TSLEIL-WAUTUTH) TERRITORIES/VANCOUVER – The UN Climate Change Conference COP 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan is set to begin on Monday. In contrast to previous years, the B.C. government has not shared its latest annual climate pollution data ahead of the UN climate summit. The province has been consistently late sharing this data, often about 20 months after the end of the reporting year (e.g. the province shared annual data for 2021 in August of 2023). This year the delay is close to two years.   

The goal of the UN summit is to take stock of progress and enable course corrections to meet the binding obligations set in the Paris Agreement, most importantly, preventing a global temperature increase greater than 1.5°C. Climate scientists have warned for years that this requires reducing greenhouse gas pollution by half by 2030.  

In B.C., the lack of current data hampers our ability to strengthen climate policies early enough to meet provincial emissions reduction targets. The most recent data shows that B.C.’s 2021 emissions were only three percent below 2007 levels, compared to our looming target of a 16 percent reduction by 2025.  

“The deadlines for the 2025 and 2030 targets are impending, but we still do not know how B.C. pollution has trended for the last two plus years. Meanwhile, the province has continued to greenlight new fossil fuel projects that will lock in millions of tonnes of additional climate pollution in B.C. and abroad, starting with LNG Canada in 2025,” said Jens Wieting, Sierra Club BC Senior Science and Policy Advisor. “We are flying blind, approving more emissions without knowing the size of our current problem, with precious little time left to course correct and make up for past failures.”   

A few days ago, the European Union shared that its members reduced their climate pollution by over eight percent last year, in large part due to rapidly replacing fossil fuel use with renewable energy. EU emissions have been reduced by 37 percent since 1990.  

“After their reelection, it’s paramount for the B.C. government to reassure voters that they have the political will to tackle the climate crisis with determination and urgency. Promptly sharing data and accountability reports is a necessary starting point for additional climate action, in particular to address the risk of new fossil fuel projects undermining progress in other sectors,” said Wieting. 

Canada remains the only G7 country that has increased its climate pollution above 1990 levels(+17%), instead of reducing it. B.C., together with Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba share the same problem. 

The federal government shared 2022 data on B.C. in May, but their data and B.C.’s own data are difficult to compare because they count emissions in different ways, resulting in different sets of numbers.

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