A recent Vancouver Sun article paints a disturbing picture of the green agenda’s future in British Columbia. During Gordon Campbell’s tenure as BC’s Premier, a compelling suite of leading legislative tools was passed that accelerated climate change mitigation throughout the province. BC joined the Western Climate Initiative, a partnership amongst a handful of American states and Canadian provinces with the goal of developing a regional cap-and-trade system to control greenhouse gas emissions from the region’s largest polluters (among other objectives). BC implemented a revenue neutral carbon tax, with predictable annual increases and mechanisms for feeding this new source of cash back into green initiatives within communities. The Climate Action Charter was developed, and signed by nearly every municipality (179 out of 188) in the province, in which communities commit to measuring and reporting their emissions, taking steps to develop compact complete communities, and achieve carbon neutrality in their corporate operations by 2012.
According to this Vancouver Sun article, however, the fate of the carbon tax is now unclear, the WCI appears to be disintegrating, and new arrangements with municipalities are extending the timeline for carbon neutrality. The MC3 project, however, is seeking to explore the excellent work and innovative action that continues throughout the province. We ask: what other drivers of community action on climate change are at play, and how will these shift as the provincial climate change agenda evolves?