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www.100milefreepress.net
Thursday, January 29, 2015 100 Mile Free Press
Perspectives
B.C. in trouble
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U.S.-China agreement lead the way
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ierra Club BC welcomes the agreement between the United States and China that outlines new reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions. This is a significant step in the right direction that displays global leadership in the lead-up to the important 2015 climate summit in Paris. The U.S. and China should be applauded. The U.S. has pledged to cut its emissions to 26-28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2025. China has agreed to cap its emissions by 2030 or earlier. The European Union (EU) has already endorsed a binding 40 per cent (compared to 1990 levels) greenhouse gas emissions reduction target by 2030. Together, the U.S., China and the EU are responsible for 50 per cent of the world’s emissions. If other countries would follow their example, we could have a real shot
at a meaningful climate by 33 per cent by 2020 is agreement in 2015 and threatened by its frenzied begin reducing green house push to export massive gas emissions in the short quantities of fracked gas. term. It is now up to other Recent satellite nations to step up and observations in the U.S. display the same kind of confirm between nine leadership. and 10 per cent Canada, in leakage rates of particular, needs heat-trapping to rethink its methane, which stance on the traps 86 times exploitation of as much heat as fossil fuels, such carbon dioxide as the Alberta over a 20-year oil sands. A period. In the recent report short term, the placed Canada climate impacts Jens dead last among of fracked gas are Wieting industrialized greater than those countries for its of coal. performance on climate This is especially worrying change. given global warming may While China and the U.S. be approaching tipping lead, Canada is heading points that, if passed, will in the opposite direction result in runaway climate and will become an change. international pariah if it Both in B.C. and Canada does not respond with a real as a whole, governments plan to reduce emissions. must apply mandatory In British Columbia, the assessments of greenhouse provincial government’s gas emissions to all target of reducing emissions proposed fossil fuel projects.
GUEST SHOT
uring the lead up to Christmas and shortly after New Year’s Eve, the B.C. Liberal government was flooding the media with press releases about all the great things it accomplished in 2014. Then, as we moved into 2015, the raft of press releases told us how great 2015 was going to be for British Columbians because of the government’s ongoing programs. The government keyed in on job creation through its liquefied natural gas (LNG) program. Leading up to the 2013 provincial election, Premier Christy Clark toured the province promising jobs and economic prosperity under the B.C. Liberal leadership. The silver bullet was going to be the extraction, production and export of LNG – mainly to Asia. The goal was to provide clean, green power to developing countries and to raise millions of dollars for British Columbians. “The money is going to start coming in 2017, and we’re going to have three plants up and running by 2020, the first one by 2015,” Clark told the CBC in February 2013. The goose was going to lay the golden egg, wipe out debt and provide surplus funds that would help British Columbians for generations to come. Well, the B.C. Liberals won the provincial election on those promises, but they look a little hollow now, and meeting the targets is going to be extremely difficult for a number of reasons. China was one of B.C.’s major targets for LNG sales, but it signed a $400-billion deal with Russia. Increased shale gas supply in the United States and elsewhere in the world drove the LNG prices down. Then the price of crude oil plunged below $50 per barrel and drilling contractors and oil-producing corporations are cutting back on production, development and expansion. While it’s likely crude prices are going to recover, it’s unlikely they will jump up as quickly as they fell. The premier admitted as much when she addressed a natural resources forum and the Truck Loggers’ convention last week. Clark said the above mentioned problems were going to delay the government’s plans, but she maintained there would be three LNG export facilities in B.C. by 2020. In the meantime, she has turned her gaze towards the forest industry for economic and job-producing help because of pending industry retirements and the recovery in the United States housing market. However, with the recent Aboriginal Title victory in the Supreme Court of Canada, resource extraction has become increasingly complicated. It may take as much time to ramp up forestry negotiations and production as it will to see crude oil prices go up to the point it’s feasible to increase production. We can only hope the government’s economy plans blossom to secure our province’s future.
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If the federal government refuses to do so, then B.C. must act unilaterally to impose its own climate test. Existing studies show new pipeline projects, such as Enbridge’s Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline, as well as the proposed LNG terminals would result in sky-rocketing increase in emissions and must be shelved in favour of investment in climatefriendly, renewable energy solutions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has made it clear that we face “severe, widespread and irreversible impacts” if emissions are not reduced quickly. China and the U.S. have heeded the call – it’s time for Canada to stop being part of the problem and become part of the solution. Jens Wieting is Sierra Club BC’s forest and climate campaigner.
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