BC's emissions have barely budged, province says

National Observer

01-05-2025

BC's carbon emissions are barely budging and the province will fall far short of its climate goals, despite British Columbians reducing their emissions per person by about 20 percent through the adoption of heat pumps, electric vehicles and other climate actions.
The province will emit nearly 20 million tons of more carbon emissions than its 2030 targets under existing policies, blowing through targets essential to keeping the climate crisis in check, according to the province's annual climate accountability report.
Released Tuesday, the document reveals that the province's gross emissions have increased 0.2 per cent since 2007, the reference year against which reductions are measured, hitting 65.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2022. The emissions data are from 2022, the most recent available in Canada's National Inventory Report.
It comes as the province reconsiders its climate actions. This spring, BC Premier David Eby canceled the consumer carbon tax, the province has announced it will review its subsidy for EVs, and it is planning to reassess the CleanBC climate plan, which sets the province' emissions reduction targets.
The numbers show these emissions held steady despite the province's GDP almost doubling and the province's population growing by a fifth during the same time frame, resulting in about 20 per cent fewer emissions per person. That's higher per capita emissions than Ontario, Quebec and PEI, but lower than the Prairies and the Atlantic provinces.
About 40 per cent of the province's carbon emissions came from transportation, while the oil and gas industry accounted for nearly 15 per cent.
BC residents weren't the biggest emitters, with many embracing climate action and recent polling showing widespread support for climate action. Heat pump installations soared by over 60 per cent between 2022 and 2023, according to the province's climate accountability report. In 2023 EVs made up nearly a quarter of new cars sold in the province — though recent provincial data show sales are slowing.
BC's carbon emissions are barely budging and the province will fall far short of its climate goals, despite British Columbians reducing their emissions per person by about 20 percent.
"I'm not that surprised we're not on target," said Thomas Green, senior climate policy advisor for the David Suzuki Foundation. The province's climate policies have taken longer to implement than initially expected, and there is typically a lag between when the policies are implemented and their impact starts to show, he said.
Making them remains essential for the province's economic future. Evan Pivnik, program manager at Clean Energy Canada highlighted in a statement that 10 of Canada's largest non-US trading partners have net-zero commitments and carbon pricing — and border fees on products that don't meet similar standards.
Still, experts highlight that no matter what measures the province takes to reduce emissions from buildings, transportation and other sources, many of those hard-won emissions reductions could be canceled out by the province's push to build up an LNG industry in northern BC.
LNG "is certainly the elephant in the room," said John Young, LNG senior strategist for Climate Action Network. "Whenever you're talking about climate in British Columbia or climate in Canada, LNG needs to be part of the conversation in ways that it often hasn't been."
If all six LNG projects proposed in the province are built, their operational and upstream emissions alone would make up about 40 per cent of the emissions allowed under the province's 2030 goals. The emissions generated when that fuel is burned would be about 10 times higher, harming global efforts to fight the climate crisis.
Government officials know that supporting the LNG industry will send the province blowing through its climate goals, but have decided the financial returns are worth the devastating climate impacts of exploiting those reserves, Young said.
"There's no way to dress it up. If you build new fossil fuel projects, you're not going to meet your climate targets. That's not, that's not rocket science. That's climate science."