Submission to the CleanBC Review Panel

CleanBC is the province’s policy framework for achieving legislated greenhouse gas (GHG) domestic emissions reduction targets. The first legislated target is to reduce B.C.’s absolute emissions to 40 per cent below 2007 levels by 2030. According to the 2024 Climate Change Accountability Report, B.C.’s net GHG emissions have fallen by 2.2 per cent relative to the 2030 target as of 2022, which is impressive given population and economic growth, but still reveals a large gap between ambition and reality.

The initial CleanBC plan was announced in December of 2018 followed by a Roadmap to 2030 plan with additional detail released in 2021. The targets to reduce emissions, starting with the 40 per cent reduction relative to the 2007 baseline by 2030, were determined before all the policies to reach the targets were specified. The 2018 plan included some detailed policies with projected emissions reductions such as increasing the consumer carbon tax (recently set to zero) and setting sales targets and subsides for the purchase of zero-emission vehicles (ZEV). Other policies were placeholders or yet to be determined. Emissions reductions from the various policies are estimated in the public-facing documents, but the economic costs associated with those emissions reductions are not included in either of the reports.

This submission provides a high-level assessment of the approach taken by CleanBC and offers some recommendations to guide the government’s policies in this area going forward. The overall conclusion is that a fundamental reset is needed, starting with abandoning unrealistic domestic emission reduction timelines. At the same time, BCBC remains optimistic about continuing to make progress towards improving environmental outcomes. We are proud of the contributions and ongoing commitment to this goal that is clearly demonstrated by businesses of all sizes in this province.