The Pembina Institute undertook interviews with 12 BC local governments taking action on climate change. The goal of these conversations was to determine what has and is motivating these communities to act on climate change. A question similar to those asked by the Meeting the Climate Change Challenge (MC3) project.
Interestingly, Pembina found that the majority of governments (seven of twelve) referenced the carbon tax as positive for building the business case for low-carbon strategies. While others suggested that the price signal was too low to motivate change. Many referenced the long-term goal of reducing dependence on fossil fuels as a rationale for taking action on climate change. These goals align well with other reasons cited such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, saving on cost of energy, and other community priorities such as building compact, complete communities.
Some local governments were interested in demonstrating leadership, particularly given the strong provincial leadership credited as generating favourable conditions for governments to justify climate action via the Climate Action Charter, the carbon tax and the Green Communities Act.
Pembina notes that this leadership could be maintained or even strengthened if the Province were to consider four main recommendations. These are:
- Signaling that the carbon tax is permanent and increasing the price of carbon. Together, this creates the financial incentive required to reduce energy and switch to low-carbon energy sources.
- Recycling carbon tax revenue into investments in emissions reduction projects. By increasing the carbon tax or extending it to account for the remaining 30% of emissions in BC, the provincial government could use these additional sources of revenue to invest in energy reducing projects; a more visible use of the revenue-neutral tax. Mayors in BC have also suggested this type of initiative be developed, arguing that access to new revenues generated from annual increases in carbon tax could contribute to local emissions-reducing projects.
- The carbon tax rebate provided to signatories to the Climate Action Charter, CARIP, could be used to fund emissions reductions projects in their own communities. A number of BC local governments have done this demonstrating the positive and visible effects of the carbon tax for their communities.
- Strengthening the leadership already developed. Pembina commends provincial climate change leadership and its influence for BC communities. New frameworks between provincial and local governments that facilitate even stronger action are encouraged.