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Hidden, uncounted forest emissions will be more than three times B.C.’s total official emissions
Plan to reduce forest emissions urgently needed
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 28, 2019
Victoria—B.C.’s hidden and uncounted forest emissions in 2017 and 2018 will be three times higher than the province’s total officially reported emissions, warns Sierra Club BC.
The environmental organization is calling on the B.C. government to develop a forest emissions report and reduction plan, with immediate steps to reduce emissions from destructive logging, slash burning and wildfires. B.C.’s growing forest carbon losses and steps to reduce them are summarized in the Sierra Club BC report Hidden, ignored and growing: B.C.’s forest carbon emissions.
”It’s bad enough that our official emissions have gone up in five of the last six years, yet our forests are contributing massive uncounted emissions that dwarf the official numbers,” said Jens Wieting, senior forest and climate campaigner with Sierra Club BC. “It’s an invisible crisis that government must stop ignoring and act to reduce.”
The provincial government can begin by ending its practice of burying this data and producing an additional, detailed report on forest carbon emissions.
“Reducing these ‘unofficial’ emissions is now an even greater challenge than reducing our so-called official emissions,” said Wieting. “Nobody will act if these alarming figures remain hidden. We need to acknowledge the crisis first, then take urgent steps to reduce them as much as possible.”
“The growing loss of carbon in our forests shows how severely climate impacts are already damaging the natural life support systems we depend on,” said Wieting. “Turning a blind eye to these massive amounts of carbon pollution allows governments to act as if new pipelines and fracked LNG terminals can be accommodated within climate action plans.”
The massive and growing forest emissions are a result of destructive logging, pine beetle outbreaks and wildfires. B.C.’s forests used to absorb more carbon than they released until the early 2000s when they became a net source of carbon.
The situation has gotten much worse in the last two years. Both the 2017 and 2018 wildfires burned more than 1.2 million hectares of the province, eight times more than the ten year average. B.C.’s 2017 fires caused an estimated 190 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. 2018 will be similar.
According to the latest data, which was quietly released by the B.C. government in December 2018, B.C.’s total emissions were about 62 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2016. Uncounted annual emissions from destructive logging and slash burning were close to 50 million tonnes in the last three years.
Combined with skyrocketing emissions from fires and a reduced ability of damaged forests to sequester carbon, the province must expect more than 200 million tonnes of “uncounted” annual carbon dioxide emissions from B.C.’s forests, once data becomes available for 2017 and 2018.
“B.C.’s forest management is making climate change worse—an alarming situation when our forests should instead be our best ally in the fight against climate change,” said Wieting. “Unless the B.C. government wakes up and takes far-reaching action to strengthen conservation and improve forest management, our provincial forests will continue to contribute to climate change instead of slowing it down. Sharing detailed information to inform forest climate strategies at all levels of government will be a crucial first step.”
To inform meaningful policy, forest emissions data must offer as much detail as possible, with a focus on different regions and ecosystems, forest management and forestry practices. This will require collecting regional data and data on management practices, distinguishing between carbon rich forests and less carbon rich forests, and distinguishing between emissions from destructive practices and selective logging.
Setting reduction targets for forest emissions is difficult. What the government can do is to set and deliver on targets related to actions like protecting forests and changing practices. Examples are targets for protection of carbon rich old-growth, timelines to phase out slash burning, and ensuring all communities at risk of wildfires are fully participating in Fire Smart programs.
Phasing out logging of carbon rich endangered old-growth forest will result in immediate emission reductions, as demonstrated with the Great Bear Rainforests Agreements. Improving management of second-growth forests and moving from destructive practices to careful logging allows for both the production of wood products and an increase in the amount of carbon stored in forests at the same time. This means more jobs and less damage per cubic metre. These steps must be integrated in provincial strategies like CleanBC and the coast revitalization initiative.
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The Sierra Club BC report Hidden, ignored and growing: B.C.’s forest carbon emissions can be found at: https://sierraclub.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/SCBC-Forest-Emissions-Report-Jan-19.pdf
Media contact:
Jens Wieting
Senior Forest and Climate Campaigner
Sierra Club BC
(604) 354-5312
jens@sierraclub.bc.ca
B.C. climate pollution increasing; accountability mechanisms needed
Pollution growth means LNG Canada and Coastal GasLink pipeline will pose greater risk for meeting B.C. climate targets
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 14, 2018
The latest B.C. carbon pollution data, quietly released in December, show that provincial emissions were higher in 2016 than in 2015. Sierra Club BC is warning that despite rhetoric about climate action, this means B.C.’s climate pollution increased in five of the six years between 2011 and 2016.
In 2016, provincial emissions increased by 1.5 per cent compared to 2015 and were only 2.9 per cent below the baseline reporting year of 2007. In light of economic growth and lack of new climate action, it can be anticipated that emissions will likely not have been reduced through 2017 and 2018 (for which data is not yet available).
“This latest data makes the recent CleanBC plan announced in December all the more important and urgent. It’s these kind of tangible steps—and more—that are needed if we are to finally begin to reduce climate pollution,” said Jens Wieting, senior forest and climate campaigner with Sierra Club BC. “Yet the government didn’t say a word about the ongoing growth of B.C.’s emissions, as shared in data posted on the government’s website later that same day.
“The B.C. government promised accountability as part of their climate strategy. Accountability begins with a real effort to share pollution information with the public. It should not be the task of Sierra Club BC to send out a press release about the fact that B.C.’s emissions continue to go up,” said Wieting. “The province has shown leadership with CleanBC, outlining how some of the needed emission reductions can be achieved. We need the same leadership when it comes to informing British Columbians about the inconvenient truth that our pollution continues to grow at a time when the province is still cheering on new fracked gas infrastructure.
“British Columbians deserve to know that we have a growing pollution problem. By leaving the public in the dark, the government isn’t providing any accountability for what has and hasn’t worked in the past when it comes to reducing our climate pollution. The recent data shows the absurdity of going ahead with new fracked LNG projects and pipelines at a time when the climate emergency requires rapid cuts to climate pollution.”
To meet B.C.’s 2030 provincial climate pollution reduction target, B.C.’s annual climate pollution must be reduced by about 24 million tonnes—from roughly 62 million tonnes today to roughly 38 million tonnes in 2030. This will require an average reduction of two million tonnes, or more than three per cent per year, for each of the next 12 years.
The CleanBC plan showed steps to deliver 75 per cent of the required reduction to meet the provincial 2030 goal, but it remains unclear where the remaining 25 per cent will come from. And much more will be needed in order to meet B.C.’s legislated 2050 target (a reduction of 80 per cent compared to 2007).
“What’s clear is that building the Coastal GasLink pipeline and the LNG Canada project is counter to efforts to decrease B.C.’s climate pollution,” said Wieting. “In addition to the opposition from Wet’suwet’en hereditary leadership to the pipeline, these projects would release at least two years’ worth of the needed pollution reduction, making it harder to close the gap towards meeting the 2030 goal and likely impossible to meet the already-weak 2050 target.”
The provincial math assumes that building the Coastal GasLink pipeline and one half of the LNG Canada project will cause about four million tonnes of additional annual carbon pollution. This would be equivalent to two years’ worth of the needed annual reduction. However, the Pembina Institute estimates that if LNG Canada and its Coastal GasLink pipeline are fully built, additional emissions will be roughly nine million tonnes, equivalent to 4.5 years of the needed reduction in the next twelve years.
The B.C. government has still not presented any binding mechanism that would stop LNG Canada from building the second half of its project, even if this addition makes it impossible to meet B.C.’s emissions targets.
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The latest carbon pollution data from the B.C. government can be found here:
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/environment/climate-change/data/provincial-inventory/2016/2016_provincial_inventory.xlsx
Media contact:
Jens Wieting
Senior Forest and Climate Campaigner
(604) 354-5312
jens@sierraclub.bc.ca
BC’s clean growth plan: A major step forward in the race to combat the climate crisis
Read our Times Colonist op-ed published in advance of the release of the CleanBC plan.
By Executive Director Hannah Askew
On December 5, 2018, B.C. announced its new clean growth plan. CleanBC is a major step forward in the race to combat the climate crisis and secure a better future for British Columbians.
It’s a bold move to defend our communities from climate impacts and build a strong clean energy economy that works for everyone.
Premier John Horgan, George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy (and Sierra Club BC’s former executive director) and Andrew Weaver, climate scientist and leader of the BC Green Party, deserve genuine praise for what they’ve achieved in pulling this plan together.
CleanBC brings forward specific, concrete measures to get us 75% towards our 2030 carbon pollution reduction target. The plan commits to a full accounting of how it will achieve the remaining 25% with the next 18-24 months.
We especially like the accountability mechanisms that are built into the plan, which will be legislated, and will include annual reporting.
We’ll be watching to ensure that the climate advisory council has sufficient budget and capacity to do its work, can set interim sectoral targets and has the ability to revise pollution reduction targets in future in light of the latest science.
Is the plan perfect? Far from it. Its targets for the reduction of carbon pollution are not ambitious enough in view of the evolving climate science, as our senior forest and climate campaigner Jens Wieting has been highlighting ever since the targets were announced back in May.
As Jens stated, the most fundamental measure of accountability for climate leadership is whether it keeps our world below 1.5 degrees of warming. If we are to support livable communities into the future, we must reduce carbon pollution faster than currently planned, alongside all that is praiseworthy in this plan.
And that’s going to be a formidable challenge. The latest B.C. carbon pollution data, quietly released in December, show that provincial emissions were higher in 2016 than in 2015. Despite rhetoric about climate action, this means B.C.’s climate pollution increased in five of the six years between 2011 and 2016. We can anticipate that emissions will likely not have been reduced through 2017 and 2018 either.
We’re also concerned that this government continues to be committed to LNG, given the massive carbon footprint of the LNG Canada project alone. The provincial strategy leaves it unclear how much carbon pollution is allowed from LNG terminals, and what binding mechanism will be used to ensure they cannot increase above a certain level. Ultimately, it’s counter-productive to act to reduce carbon pollution on the one hand, while on the other hand expanding fossil fuel extraction.
And there no mention of how we will meet our 2050 pollution reduction targets.
But in today’s polarized world, in which far too many politicians and political parties are backsliding on climate, the CleanBC plan is a bold and welcome step forward. It will not only benefit those of us here today, it will also benefit future generations.
I was struck by the words of Musqueam Elder and knowledge keeper Shane Pointe at the plan’s announcement. He pointed to Xavier, the five-month-old baby of Energy Minister Michelle Mungall, telling us that we need to be acting today, not just for ourselves, but for the great-great-great-grandchildren of baby Xavier.
That is the vision and prioritization we must bring to the enormous challenge presented to us by the climate crisis. Actions today must be for the long, long term and must protect the needs of our upcoming generations.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stressed we have twelve years to turn the tide, keep warming under 1.5 degrees and avoid the worst climate impacts on our health, communities and economy. This plan moves us significantly in the right direction, yet we must do more.
In 2019, we’ll be working to help make the CleanBC plan even stronger.
While we work to improve CleanBC, we will also endorse and celebrate what’s good about the plan and encourage our family, friends and neighbours to support it too. Here in B.C., just like many other parts of Canada and the world, people are fearful of climate change and concerned that climate action will hurt them rather than help.
We need to show that climate action involves a just economic transformation that will provide new opportunities and good jobs, and will give British Columbia a competitive advantage over jurisdictions that cling to outdated fossil fuel investment.
We need to do this to ensure that the measures in CleanBC have the kind of staying power that is only possible with broad public support. I believe the climate crisis means we have to move beyond partisan conflict. Politicians and parties of all stripes need to come together and work toward our common good.
We’ll be working hard in 2019 to call on our governments for even bolder action on climate change. Please donate today to help us make this happen.
Feature image: Elizabeth Stilwell
Sierra Club BC hails Clean BC as important step forward
Cautions more work needed
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 5, 2018
VANCOUVER—B.C.’s clean growth plan is a major step forward in the race to combat the climate crisis and secure a better future for British Columbians, said Sierra Club BC. Moving forward, more will need to be done to build on the strategy’s strengths, namely ensuring our targets are based on science and stopping new major energy projects that increase emissions.
“We welcome today’s announcement as an important step forward and a good day for all British Columbians. This is an excellent step towards defending our communities from climate impacts and building a strong clean energy economy that works for everyone,” said Caitlyn Vernon, Sierra Club BC’s campaigns director.
Since any plan is only as good as how it is implemented, Sierra Club BC welcomes the accountability mechanisms built into the Clean BC plan.
“The plan delivers specific, effective actions with transparent reporting and accountability, which deserves both applause and support,” said Vernon. “We will be watching to ensure that the climate advisory council has sufficient budget and capacity to do its work, can set interim sectoral targets and has the ability to revise pollution reduction targets in future in light of the latest science.”
Sierra Club BC is concerned that the plan will not reduce carbon pollution as much or as fast as the climate science tells us is needed.
The government’s continued commitment to LNG remains a matter of deep concern, given the massive carbon footprint of the LNG Canada project alone. The provincial strategy leaves it unclear how much carbon pollution is allowed from LNG terminals, and what binding mechanism will be used to ensure they cannot increase above a certain level.
“The most fundamental measure of accountability for climate leadership is whether it keeps our world below 1.5 degrees of warming,” said senior forests and climate campaigner Jens Wieting. “If we are to support livable communities into the future, we must reduce carbon pollution faster than currently planned, alongside all that is praiseworthy in this plan.”
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stressed we have twelve years to turn the tide, keep warming under 1.5 degrees and avoid the worst climate impacts on our health, communities and economy. This plan moves us significantly in the right direction, yet we must do more.
The Clean BC plan details exactly how 75 per cent of B.C.’s 2030 carbon reduction target will be achieved, and sets out a timeline for detailing how the remaining 25 per cent reduction will be met in the next two years. There is no mention of how we will meet our future (2050) pollution reduction targets.
“While we believe this plan should be celebrated today and implemented starting tomorrow, it’s worth noting that we could more easily get to 100 per cent without LNG in the mix,” said Vernon. “It’s counter-productive to act to reduce carbon pollution on the one hand, while on the other hand expanding fossil fuel extraction.
“We are calling on all British Columbians to support this plan, and to work together to strengthen it into the future, in a way that replaces divisiveness with cooperation, and rejects partisanship in favour of our common interests.”
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Contact:
Caitlyn Vernon
Campaigns Director, Sierra Club BC
(250) 896-3500
caitlyn@sierraclub.bc.ca
Jens Wieting
Senior Forest and Climate Campaigner, Sierra Club BC
(604) 354-5312
jens@sierraclub.bc.ca
Event: What’s up in the woods
Wednesday, December 5th, 2018
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Victoria Events Centre
1415 Broad Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W 2B2
Join the Wilderness Committee, Ancient Forest Alliance and Sierra Club BC for an update on Vancouver Island’s remaining old-growth rainforests and the movement to protect them!
Come hear what our organizations are doing to address this crisis and how you can get involved. We want to hear you concerns and share ideas on how we can protect these vital ecosystems before it’s too late. So join us, and bring a friend!
Event info:
– Doors at 6:30pm
– Hear from Ancient Forest Alliance Andrea Inness, Sierra Club BC’s Mark Worthing and Wilderness Committee’s Torrance Coste, followed by Q+A and community discussion starting at 7pm
Accessibility:
– The Victoria Event Centre currently does not have an operational elevator, and there is one long flight of stairs at the venue entrance. If you would like to attend the event but require assistance with accessing the space, please contact us at events@victoriaeventcentre.ca and VEC staff will do their best to accommodate.
– More detailed venue accessibility info is available at https://victoriaeventcentre.ca/attendees/accessibility
– Washrooms are for all genders.
***This event is being held on the unceded Lekwungen territories of the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. The organizers recognize that every tree on the coast grows on the territory of an Indigenous Nation and that any solutions that protect forests must centre the rights of these Nations first and foremost
Background Info:
The vast majority of productive, low-elevation old-growth rainforest on Vancouver Island has already been logged. We need to protect what remains in order to insure the survival of these ecosystems and the Indigenous cultural resources, endangered species and tourism and recreational opportunities that they provide.
Every day, more than 34 soccer fields of original rainforest are destroyed, on Vancouver Island alone. At the same time, this industry isn’t sustainable from an economic and community perspective either — in the last decade, BC’s forestry sector has lost six jobs a day on average.
How can we protect remaining old-growth ecosystems before it’s too late? How can we ensure the rights, title and authority of the Indigenous Nations in whose territories all forests grow is truly respected? How can we build a just transition to a sustainable second-growth forest industry that can provide livelihoods in communities in perpetuity?
These are the questions our organizations are looking to solve, and we need your help!
