MEETING THE CLIMATE CHANGE CHALLENGE (2007)
The 2007 BC Provincial Throne Speech outlined the intention to aggressively curb greenhouse gas emissions in British Columbia.
While the effect of humans on the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the last 50 years is certain, like many things in science, the relationship between human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases and climate change is not certain but the global scientific consensus is that such a relationship exists. Moreover, recent extreme weather events across Canada, including unprecedented wind and rain in coastal British Columbia, has galvanized Canadian interest in, and concern for, the effects of climate change. The expected environmental and economic effects of climate change bring to mind the truism “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. And, of course, Canada’s currents level of performance in managing greenhouse gases is a matter of international interest – we are 3rd worst among 30 OECD countries in carbon dioxide emissions per capita, and 9th worst on carbon dioxide emissions as a percentage of GDP. Further, our ratio of energy use to achieve a given level of GDP is on a par with Saudi Arabia and Russia, not with our global competitors (MIT Centre for Energy Studies). A surge in carbon energy exports, the replacement of nuclear energy in Ontario with coal-fired generating stations, and a lack of political will to force action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions are the underlying causes of this poor performance . And if the Alberta Oil Sands experiences the five-fold increase in expansion that is contemplated, our role as a major global contributor to greenhouse gas emissions will only heighten. Against this backdrop, The Chamber believes that aggressive action is needed. The reasons for this are threefold:
• Our ability to survive, much less prosper, is dependent on the quality of our environment. Quite apart from the resources the environment provides to fuel our economy, the environment provides a flow of ecosystem services that collectively make up the life support system that allows life on Earth;
• Increasing the energy efficiency of our economy will improve our national productivity and our international competitiveness; and
• We have an obligation to future generations to give them at least the same complement of resources (renewable, non-renewable, human-made) as we were bequeathed .
To be sure, Canada is a northern country with a diffuse population spread across a vast geography. Transportation and space heating will, therefore, always pose challenges with respect to energy use. Still, The Chamber believes we can also find opportunity in confronting these challenges. This is especially true in the realm of making more efficient use of energy to heat residential and commercial buildings, and facilitating energy efficiency in new buildings and vehicles. We are already seeing some signs of progress here, but we need to dramatically accelerate the shift to an energy efficient, sustainable economy. This will require a balanced set of policies and regulations , emissions trading, and financial incentives. We must achieve emissions reductions from industry, but we must also provide encouragement to individual households to use energy more efficiently.
The BC Chamber of Commerce supports provincial efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We also strongly support the intention to harmonize our GHG approach with the Western US states, and with the federal government.
This said, The Chamber believes that if government proceeds with the targets as enunciated in the Throne Speech, then the burden of meeting these objectives must be fairly distributed across all emitters whether they are commercial, industrial, transportation or residential related.
THE CHAMBER RECOMMENDS
That the provincial government:
1. spread the burden fairly among energy using sectors by using appropriate economically efficient “price signals” to create incentives for GHG mitigation;
2. use economically distortive “command and control” methods like energy efficiency standards, and hybrid methods (like cap-and-trade) sparingly and only where appropriate, and in conjunction with broad-based initiatives in the US or Canada. Government policy in climate change must proceed in step with other jurisdictions in order to ensure BC’s competitiveness is not unduly undermined;
3. to the greatest extent possible, government revenues from pricing mechanisms and sources should be revenue neutral; and
4. to the extent government provides relief for the disadvantaged groups and sectors less able to afford capital costs associated with reducing carbon usage, it should be temporary and geared towards more permanent lasting solutions.
