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B.C. keeps freeze on carbon tax in new climate plan, won’t adjust target dates

Aug 19, 2016 | 1:53 PM

VANCOUVER — The British Columbia government will maintain a freeze on its carbon tax, rejecting a recommendation from a group of advisers to increase the levy to fight climate change.

The province released its Climate Leadership Plan on Friday, promising to take action on 21 measures to help it meet the target to reduce emissions by 80 per cent of 2007 levels by 2050.

By sticking to the 2050 date, the province has also decided against moving up the target to 2030, as its Climate Leadership Team recommended.

A group of experts, First Nations, and business leaders who were appointed by the government to the Climate Leadership Team made 32 recommendations last fall, including raising the $30-per-tonne carbon tax by $10 annually starting in 2018.

The carbon tax has been in place since 2008 but includes some industry exemptions.

The government says it will re-evaluate the carbon tax once other jurisdictions catch up to B.C.

The federal government, along with other provinces, have set new goals following the Paris Agreement last December to reduce emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

B.C.’s next target remains set at 2050, which environmentalists have said is too far in the future to be an incentive to act now.

The team said in its report that the recommendations needed to be adopted as a full package — not cherry picked — to be effective.

After it was introduced, the tax reached $30 per tonne of carbon emissions — about seven cents per litre at the gas pump — in 2012, but it has not been increased since then.

Premier Christy Clark said the government is trying to strike a balance between maintaining its economic  competitiveness and cutting carbon emissions in setting the tax. She called on other provinces to introduce a levy at the same rate as British Columbia’s.

“We need to know other provinces intend to catch up with us,” Clark said.

“A climate plan is not just about carbon pricing. As the World Bank noted, carbon pricing is just one instrument in a portfolio of approaches to fight climate change. And we cannot get where we need to be in fighting climate change in British Columbia with a carbon tax alone.”

Clark said B.C.’s plan includes a focus on liquefied natural gas, methane reduction, reforestation, expanding the province’s electric vehicle program and reducing congestion by spending money to expand public transit, particularly in Metro Vancouver.

The plan will create 66,000 new jobs, Clark said.

But Josha MacNab, B.C. director of the Pembina Institute, said the government has put off making tough decisions.

“Last year, the Climate Leadership Team showed clearly that B.C. can both meet its climate targets and maintain a strong economy without trading one for the other,” she said in a news release. “That’s still the right bar to be aiming for, and it’s a bar that B.C. has missed.”

MacNab said carbon pollution will not start to significantly decline for almost 15 years if all the reductions outlined in the plan are achieved.

“B.C. has the capacity to do much more in the fight against climate change. Not doing so passes the costs of dealing with climate change onto our children and grandchildren.”

 

Linda Givetash, The Canadian Press