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Tag Archive for: GHG emissions

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New federal climate pollution data shows B.C. is failing to curb emissions

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Sierra Club BC: Looming fracked LNG projects threaten provincial, national, and global climate targets

April 20, 2023

Unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-waututh) First Nations (Vancouver) — Sierra Club BC is warning that federal climate pollution data released on April 14 shows B.C. emissions increased by 1.1 percent in 2021, remaining very close to the levels of past years despite the short remaining time to meet the province’s near-term pollution reduction targets. 

According to the new federal Greenhouse Gas Inventory, B.C. lowered emissions by only 2.8 percent between 2021 and 2007 (B.C.’s baseline year). This minimal progress means the province is now far behind in its goal to reduce emissions by 16 percent in 2025 and 40 percent in 2030. Meeting the 2030 target will require reducing pollution every year by about 4 percent of current annual emissions.  

“Every year of failure in reducing pollution is moving us closer to even more catastrophic climate disasters and makes it even more difficult to meet targets in the remaining time. Issuing permits for new fracked LNG infrastructure at a time when alternatives are readily available is incredibly shortsighted,” said Jens Wieting, senior forest and climate campaigner at Sierra Club BC. “New fossil fuel projects will contribute to climate breakdown or become stranded assets soon. The open question is whether we can change course faster than the climate is now changing, after all the damage we have already caused.”  

In November, the B.C. government revealed in its 2022 climate change accountability report that the province is not on course to meet its 2025 and 2030 targets, and failed to show how the province intends to achieve its 2040 and 2050 targets. It also didn’t include details on how B.C. will meet its oil and gas sector target while at the same time allowing new LNG and fracking projects. Sierra Club BC, represented by Ecojustice lawyers, took the province to court over shortcomings in climate accountability reporting, and the court agreed that progress on climate targets has been dismal.  

New fossil fuel projects in B.C. have the potential to undermine some of the positive steps toward reducing emissions in other sectors of the economy that are underway. Phase 1 of LNG Canada, a fracked gas export facility under construction in Kitimat, B.C., is expected to start operations in 2025, leading to millions more tonnes of annual carbon pollution for decades to come. Phase 2 of LNG Canada and other planned or proposed LNG projects would result in further increasing climate pollution in B.C. and abroad. A new provincial energy framework announced in March fell short on details for how the province can expand fossil fuel production and meet targets at the same time.  

In addition to emissions from fracking, pipelines, and liquefaction in B.C., burning fracked LNG after exporting causes even more emissions in other countries. Because of the massive total emissions from LNG projects targeting fossil fuel reserves in B.C.’s northeast, climate scientists consider this development as one of several ‘carbon bombs’ (defined as projects that will cause over 1 billion tonnes of GHG emissions during their lifetimes), threatening global climate targets.  

Despite this threat to provincial and international progress, B.C.’s climate accountability reports never mention LNG terminals and associated fracking. In contrast, the latest report from B.C.’s Climate Solutions Council contains stark warnings, listing 13 ‘pitfalls in climate policy implementation,’ including “approval of new high-emission industrial projects.” The report also repeats warnings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) that “emissions from planned/approved fossil fuel infrastructure will exhaust the remaining carbon budget.”      

“The report from B.C.’s Climate Solutions Council lays out much of what we need to see in the next provincial climate accountability report. These pitfalls need to be addressed through urgent amendments to B.C.’s climate action plans. This will assure people in B.C. that their government understands the gravity of the climate crisis and is willing to take action,” said Shelley Luce, campaigns director at Sierra Club BC. “The B.C. government needs to take bold action to ensure people and planet can thrive in the future. This requires reducing emissions rapidly, in every part of our economy, from fossil fuel production to protecting old-growth forests.” 

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Background:

The federal inventory and BC’s own data on provincial emissions are difficult to compare because they count emissions in slightly different ways, resulting in different sets of numbers (e.g. the federal data shows B.C.’s 2020 emissions as 58.8 million tonnes, and BC’s own data shows them as 64.6 million tonnes). Making things more complicated, the federal government revised methods and now shows all past provincial emissions as lower than one year ago (e.g. BC’s 2020 emissions stood at 61.7 million tonnes in last year’s federal inventory).

The federal data remains important because it is showing a trend: as expected, provincial emissions moved in the wrong direction during 2021, as a result of resuming business as usual after the worst chapter of the pandemic in 2020, and an ongoing lack of consistent climate action to reduce emissions in every sector and meet every target on the path to 2050, with no exceptions.

 

For more information, please contact:

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

Shelley Luce | Director of Campaigns, Sierra Club BC
604-774-5730, shelley@sierraclub.bc.ca

 

 

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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