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Provincial response shows the importance of the courts in ensuring climate accountability

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Sierra Club BC offers the following statement following the B.C. government’s response to SCBC’s legal challenge over its climate plan.

May 4, 2022

The B.C. government has responded to Sierra Club BC’s climate accountability lawsuit we filed with the help of charity law firm Ecojustice. Sadly, instead of accepting responsibility and beginning the urgent work to address the blind spots we have identified, the province is alleging that we are going to court just to get the plans we want. The reality, however, is that several plans for key climate targets laid out in B.C.’s 2019 law simply don’t exist in the province’s 2021 accountability report.

We’re holding them to account in accordance with the letter of the law, as it’s written. There is no doubt from our perspective that B.C.’s climate accountability legislation requires the government to publish plans to make progress towards all of B.C.’s climate targets, but they have failed to produce these plans for 2025, 2040 and 2050. Also non-existent is the crucial plan for the oil and gas industry that shows how B.C. can possibly meet its ambitious 2030 target for this sector, while at the same time continuing to support and subsidize new LNG terminals and more fracking (for more background see our March 31 media release here).

The B.C. government argues that the public cannot hold them accountable in the courts if they fail to meet the requirements of their climate accountability law. But laws written by governments in Canada are routinely subject to public scrutiny in the courts. It’s a cornerstone of our democracy and the rule of law that the public should access the judicial system to demand fairness, transparency, and accountability. Why would B.C.’s climate legislation not be subject to scrutiny by the public through the courts? The disappointing response from the province shows the importance of the courts in ensuring climate accountability.

The latest IPCC reports showed unequivocally that time is running out to avert the worst impacts of the climate crisis, that further global warming can only be stopped once we have achieved net zero emissions, and pollution must be cut as quickly as possible. We are calling on the B.C. government to come forward with a plan for every target and every sector of the economy, including oil and gas.

We are in a climate emergency and it’s not too late for the B.C. government to deliver on their promise and address the crucial blind spots. Stay tuned as we continue to report updates on the progress of this lawsuit.

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For more information on why Sierra Club BC and Ecojustice are going to court over blind spots in B.C.’s climate plans go to our joint March 2022 media release:
https://sierraclub.bc.ca/environmental-groups-sue-b-c-government-over-missing-in-action-climate-plans/

Read more about the provincial response in this article: https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/highlights/bcs-climate-laws-should-not-be-overseen-by-courts-claim-court-documents-5322790

IPCC media release: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/ 

 

Media contact:

Jens Wieting, Senior Forest and Climate Campaigner/Science Advisor, Sierra Club BC
604-354 5312, jens@sierraclub.bc.ca

SCBC campaigner available for comment on IPCC report and blind spots in BC’s climate action plans

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April 4, 2022

Sierra Club BC’s Senior Forest and Climate Campaigner and Science Advisor Jens Wieting is available to comment on key findings of today’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and why Sierra Club BC and Ecojustice are taking the B.C. government to court over missing action plans for several critical targets required by law in B.C.’s climate accountability report.

The third part of the 6th IPCC assessment report is of particular importance because it offers more detail on what actions all parts of the world, particularly the richest countries and biggest polluters, have to take to address the climate crisis, with a particular focus on reductions needed by 2030.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said about the report “The jury has reached a verdict. And it is damning. This report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a litany of broken climate promises. It is a file of shame, cataloguing the empty pledges that put us firmly on track towards an unlivable world. We are on a fast track to climate disaster.”

Key findings include that global emissions must peak before 2025 and be reduced by 43 percent by 2030 if we are to have a chance of keeping warming below 1.5 degrees, the threshold considered crucial to maintaining a livable climate.

Canada is among the top ten polluters and like Canada, B.C. has failed to meet emission reduction targets for over a decade. The province’s emissions have increased every year during the last five years data is available for (2015-2019) and have remained higher than 2007 levels, B.C.’s baseline year.

The B.C. government claims to have a “continent leading CleanBC plan” but it continues to support and subsidize the expansion of fracking wells and new LNG terminals. Once built, the full emissions enabled by the LNG Canada terminal in Kitimat alone would make it nearly impossible to meet B.C. targets.

Several Canadian provinces (New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Quebec) and U.S. states (Vermont, New York state, Maryland and Washington) have banned fracking. New research released by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) in March showed that rich countries like Canada must end oil and gas production by 2034 to keep the world on track for 1.5°C (the new IPCC report only considered findings available by last October.

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IPCC media release: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/ 

For more information on why Sierra Club BC and Ecojustice are going to court over blind spots in B.C.’s climate plans last week go to our joint media release: https://sierraclub.bc.ca/environmental-groups-sue-b-c-government-over-missing-in-action-climate-plans/

 

Media contact:

Jens Wieting, Senior Forest and Climate Campaigner/Science Advisor, Sierra Club BC
604-354 5312, jens@sierraclub.bc.ca

Sierra Club BC reacts to the recent and ongoing RCMP violence in Wet’suwet’en territory

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 23, 2021

Sierra Club BC Climate Justice Campaigner Anjali Appadurai offers the following statement in response to the RCMP raid on Wet’suwet’en Territory during a provincial state of emergency.

“Sierra Club BC condemns the recent and ongoing RCMP violence in Wet’suwet’en territory. These actions are in violation of Wet’suwet’en and Canadian law, are a wasteful use of resources in the middle of a widespread state of emergency, and represent a failure of provincial leadership to advance reconciliation and climate action.

“B.C. has suffered a devastating string of climate change impacts in the span of a few months. The deep human, economic and ecological damage from these climate events underscore the need for urgent, emergency-level climate action, which must begin with an immediate move away from fossil fuels in the province. Instead, it’s been incredibly demoralizing to watch precious resources deployed not to provide urgent relief to flood victims, but rather to attack land defenders and protect the interests of a pipeline company on unceded Indigenous lands.

“The Province has made a specific policy choice to prioritize the enforcement of Coastal GasLink’s injunction over a true application of the 1997 Delgamuukw decision that granted Wet’suwet’en Peoples rights and title to their lands. They made another specific policy choice to deploy RCMP and provincial resources to remove Indigenous land defenders during an acutely devastating extreme weather event. This failure of leadership is underscored by the failure of B.C.’s climate plan to meaningfully address the scale of climate action needed in this province in order to meet the scale of the crisis.

“The climate emergency has reached B.C., and we need leadership that is able to make the rapid economic re-prioritization that will enable us to put lives and livelihoods before corporate profits. The fossil fuel industry has a deep hold on our political leadership and our economy, but this is a matter of political will. Real climate action in B.C. is still possible if our leadership acts with courage and urgency to end fossil fuel subsidies and uphold Indigenous rights. We must urgently move to an understanding of climate action that recognizes the link between colonization, the erasure of Indigenous knowledge, and the destructive nature of extractive industries. Only by prioritizing Indigenous sovereignty and title to land can we begin to approach sufficiently transformative climate action.

“British Columbians have had their eyes opened to the realities of the intersecting crises we face, from the distress of the pandemic to the devastation of the heat dome, fires, floods and extreme weather events of the past few months. Despite the colonial structures that seek to legitimize unacceptable levels of resource extraction in a time of climate emergency, Indigenous land defenders are protecting the best interests of people, the living beings we share this land with, and the planet. Our provincial leadership may soon find themselves lagging behind their constituents when it comes to understanding the speed and scale of action needed to tackle the climate crisis, and recognizing that Indigenous land defenders are providing the leadership that the provincial government is currently lacking.”

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Additional background:

Sierra Club BC is one of more than 240 diverse organizations and businesses that have signed an open letter calling on the B.C. government to confront the climate emergency and undertake ten urgent climate actions.

Media contact:

Anjali Appadurai, Climate Justice Campaigner | Sierra Club BC
Anjali@sierraclub.bc.ca, 604-328-6443

 

Social share photo by Leila Darwish

Sierra Club BC reacts to BC government’s ‘Roadmap to 2030’ CleanBC announcement

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  

October 25, 2021

Sierra Club BC Climate Justice Campaigner Anjali Appadurai offers the following statement in response to today’s updated CleanBC plan announcement, Roadmap to 2030.

“Sierra Club BC welcomes today’s Roadmap to 2030 announcement, but we maintain that the agreement does not provide the level of ambition and detail needed to ensure that B.C.’s 2030 targets are met or exceeded.

“While the Roadmap outlines strong steps to tackle emissions from transportation and buildings, key issues that remain unaddressed include fossil fuel subsidies, uncounted forest emissions, and fracked LNG.

“We are disappointed that today’s announcement offered no clarity on when the province will end fossil fuel subsidies and financial incentives, which would ensure that those industries that profit from fossil fuel pollution pay their fair share of the resulting climate damage.

“Additionally, uncounted forest emissions are much higher than officially reported emissions, yet they remain largely ignored. We note the significant omission from the Roadmap to 2030 of a clear path to reduce the staggering emissions caused by clearcut logging.

“For example, the Roadmap calls for an end to slash burning, but not until 2030. Allowing this practice to continue another nine years is a clear indicator that this government is not grasping how little time is left to avoid climate breakdown.

“There was also no information provided on how the province will ensure emissions increase from building LNG terminals and expanding fracking will be kept below a certain level. The provincial government claims they will not allow emissions from the sector to impact the ability to meet its targets but there is no cap for LNG production or other binding mechanisms.

“This means that some of the good steps the province is taking to reduce emissions in other sectors are at risk of being neutralized by emissions from fossil fuel extraction, production and export to other countries where they will cause even more emissions when burned and compete with renewable energy solutions.

“Of significant concern to us is that the Roadmap focuses mainly on 2030 targets, nine years away, and does not include binding targets and pathways to set or achieve milestones in the intervening years. B.C.’s emissions have increased every year from 2015 to 2019; this calls for immediate action to curb emissions in the short, medium and long term.

“Overall, we welcome the current effort but continue to push for a CleanBC plan that treats the climate crisis like an emergency, similar to the public health emergency that was the COVID-19 pandemic. A roadmap to 2030 with most policy milestones in 2030 and beyond would have been appropriate 10 or 20 years ago, but in the present day, it does not reflect the state of emergency that B.C. should recognize when it comes to climate change. B.C. is already experiencing climate-induced wildfires, smoke-filled skies, heat waves, extreme weather events and sea level rise. These and other impacts will get worse as climate change progresses.”

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Additional background:

Sierra Club BC is one of more than 240 diverse organizations and businesses that have signed an open letter calling on the B.C. government to confront the climate emergency and undertake ten urgent climate actions.

Read SCBC’s media release on uncounted forest emissions.


Media contact:

Anjali Appadurai, Climate Justice Campaigner | Sierra Club BC
Anjali@sierraclub.bc.ca, 604-328-6443

 

Photo by Leila Darwish

Sierra Club BC on heat wave and climate action

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June 28, 2021

Please be advised that Sierra Club BC’s Senior Forest and Climate Campaigner Jens Wieting is available to comment on B.C.’s current heat wave and the urgent need for climate emergency policies that address both climate pollution and impacts.

“We can fool ourselves, but we can’t fool the atmosphere. The current heat wave is a reminder that time is running out. B.C.’s lack of climate action has severe consequences that are already being felt today. We need immediate policy change guided by what science shows is needed to save life as we know it.”

 

For background, see the following related items:

  • BC failing to do its part to address the global climate and biodiversity crisis — Canada’s recent National Inventory Report shows that B.C.’s emissions have increased every single year since 2014 and reached 65.7 million tonnes of CO2 in 2019.  LINK TO MEDIA RELEASE
     
  • Critical report shows current BC logging practices increase climate disaster risks for BC communities — Forest conservation, forestry reforms, and Indigenous expertise and knowledge are urgently needed to mitigate climate disaster risks like heat waves. LINK TO MEDIA RELEASE
     
  • Sierra Club BC calls on provincial government to end silence about skyrocketing forest emissions — B.C. government’s own data show total greenhouse gas emissions for 2018 are more than three times larger than official numbers, when including uncounted emissions from “forest management.” LINK TO MEDIA RELEASE 

 

 

Media contact:

Jens Wieting, Senior Forest and Climate Campaigner | Sierra Club BC
jens@sierraclub.bc.ca, (604) 354-5312

 

 

Photo: Mya Van Woudenberg/Sierra Club BC

BC failing to do its part to address the global climate and biodiversity crisis

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On the second day of the Earth Day Climate Summit, Sierra Club BC is issuing the following statement.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

April 23, 2021

Unceded Coast Salish Territories (VANCOUVER, BC) — While an increasing number of governments across the world take meaningful steps to address the global climate and biodiversity crisis, British Columbia is not doing its part. Instead, the province continues to defend and subsidize fracking, old-growth logging and the destructive $16 billion dollar Site C dam, limiting British Columbians’ ability to finance effective climate action.

B.C. has long claimed to be a climate leader, but provincial emissions have stayed consistently high, a failure that contributes to Canada’s position as the only G7 country that has increased its emissions since the 2015 Paris Climate Summit.

Canada’s recent National Inventory Report shows that B.C.’s emissions have increased every single year since 2014 and reached 65.7 million tonnes of CO2 in 2019. Not only have emissions increased compared to B.C.’s 2007 level, but they have gone up by 27 per cent compared to 1990 levels (51.8 million tonnes). For comparison, the U.K.’s emissions are now 42 per cent below 1990 levels; and even in the U.S., emissions have decreased in recent years despite the Trump administration.

This is unacceptable by all accounts, but especially considering global emissions must fall by more than seven per cent per year to avoid catastrophic climate change according to the UNEP gap report.

“If B.C. truly wants to become a climate leader, the province must follow the example of those countries that are setting climate targets based on what is needed to safeguard a livable climate, not wishful thinking. Meeting science-based targets will require stopping all new fossil fuel development, ending fossil fuel subsidies and phasing out the use and production of fossil fuels as quickly as possible,” said Jens Wieting, Sierra Club BC’s senior forest and climate campaigner.

“The B.C. government has an opportunity to lead the country — and North America — into an age of climate leadership, not only in terms of emissions reductions but also towards a Just Transition for workers and communities. But we are currently squandering this opportunity by spending billions on heavy subsidies to keep failing fossil fuel companies afloat while investing in the false promise of fracked gas. The money spent on propping up the industry should be redirected to transitioning our communities safely, equitably and quickly towards a zero-carbon future,” said Sierra Club BC climate justice campaigner Anjali Appadurai.

Additionally, B.C. is home to some of the tallest and most carbon-rich forests on the planet, but the province’s current climate action plan ignores massive uncounted forest emissions caused by clearcutting and slash burning. It also ignores the role that protecting and restoring intact forests could play in sequestering carbon.

“B.C.’s forest emissions could be significantly reduced by protecting old-growth forests and reforming forestry across the province to safeguard ecological integrity and biodiversity, as outlined in the old-growth panel report that Premier Horgan promised to implement,” added Wieting. “Despite this promise, old-growth logging continues unabated, talk-and-long prevails and the provincial budget announced this week doesn’t include funding to support communities and First Nations that seek to protect their last old-growth.”

“From closed-door meetings with oil executives to continued investment in dangerous fossil fuel projects like the Site C dam and fracking, the B.C. government is sending a clear signal that it prioritizes the fossil fuel industry over a climate-safe future. This is unacceptable to British Columbians, who have consistently shown that we care about leaving a better world for future generations,” added Appadurai.

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Latest provincial GHG emissions data in Canada’s National Inventory Report
https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/climate-change/greenhouse-gas-emissions/sources-sinks-executive-summary-2021.html#toc6

More information about BC’s skyrocketing uncounted forest emissions

 

Media contacts:

Anjali Appadurai, Climate Justice Campaigner | Sierra Club BC
anjali@sierraclub.bc.ca, (604) 328-6443

Jens Wieting, Senior Forest and Climate Campaigner | Sierra Club BC
jens@sierraclub.bc.ca, (604) 354-5312

 

CORRECTION: A previous version of this media release stated that B.C.’s emissions had increased by 18 per cent compared to 1990 levels, after comparing provincial data for B.C.’s emissions in 1990 and federal data for B.C.’s emissions in 2019. For the purpose of consistency, however, it is important to use the same data source. Reviewing the federal data released in April 2021 for B.C.’s emissions in 1990 (51.8 million tonnes of CO2) and 2019 (65.7 million tonnes of CO2) shows that provincial emissions actually increased 27 per cent during this period.

(Canada’s NIR, part 3, page 33: https://unfccc.int/documents/271493)

Photo: Leila Darwish

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