For those of you keeping track, British Columbia’s public sector organizations have been required to be carbon neutral since 2010. Since that time, concerns have been voiced and recommendations have been made (see ours here). Last week, the provincial government announced changes to public sector carbon neutrality in response to some of these concerns. Overall, each of the changes should improve the policy. Unfortunately, some important concerns have yet to be addressed, but hopefully these first improvements will encourage the government to address the remaining gaps.
Let’s start with a look at what specific changes have been made:
A $5 million K-12 Energy Efficiency Capital Program
Our thoughts: Providing capital funds for school districts to invest in energy efficiency projects that decrease energy bills and increase the comfort of our schools makes sense. It shifts the emphasis from an annual offset purchase to making permanent reductions in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions for school boards (like the ones undertaken by the Delta school board last year). The $5 million investment is a good start. The province will need to find ways of increasing it and making similar investments available to more of the public sector — especially if the public sector is going to play a leading role in helping the province do its fair share to tackle climate change.
Pacific Carbon Trust Advisory Panel
Our thoughts: An advisory panel is a positive move and it can be the vehicle to build on the constructive input the province received in conducting its review of the carbon neutral requirements. An effective advisory panel will have clear terms of reference, be adequately resourced and operate in a transparent manner. It will also need to have the scope to provide advice to both the Pacific Carbon Trust and to the government. The members should come from a wide variety of sectors and have as their top priority to continue improving the carbon neutral requirements over time.
Free and better coordinated SMARTtool
Our thoughts: Waiving the fee for SMARTtool (software that tracks energy use and emissions) and taking steps to better integrate energy data uploads to the system should also help to alleviate some of the concerns that have been raised. Making a similar change for local governments would also be welcomed.
Beyond these positive steps, there are several important concerns that still need to be addressed. In particular, the province would benefit from an independent audit of B.C.’s offset protocols and the application of these protocols. Creating the space for this type of review will undoubtedly identify opportunities for improvement that should result in getting better value from public dollars and build confidence that the money is being spent wisely.
It’s also important to remember that the carbon neutral requirements aren’t isolated from the rest of B.C.’s climate policies, and efforts to strengthen those other policies will help the carbon neutral requirements. For example, broadening the carbon tax to all sources of emissions that can be accurately measured would improve B.C.’s overall approach to climate change and also resolve a situation where the public sector is being asked to play a leadership role while some emissions sources are still getting a free pass.
Josha MacNab was the national director of policy and strategy for the Pembina Institute from 2005 to 2022.
