British Columbia announces Climate Leadership Team

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark has announced the province’s Climate Leadership Team, which will provide advice and recommendations on actions to achieve greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions required across the industrial and transportation sectors and the built environment.

The B.C. Office of the Premier said in a press release this week that the team’s mandate, to be fulfilled by Nov. 30, is to provide advice and recommendations on:

• how to maintain B.C.’s climate leadership;

• updates to the current Climate Action Plan as well as new programs and policies required to meet B.C.’s greenhouse gas reduction targets while “maintaining strong economic growth and successfully implementing the BC Jobs Plan, including the liquefied natural gas strategy”;

• how to further the province’s government-to-government relationships with First Nations while constructively finding climate solutions; and

• how to further the province’s collaboration with local governments within the context of mutually-beneficial climate actions.

The Climate Leadership Team brings together “leaders from the business, academic and environmental communities, as well as First Nations and local governments, to consider the best actions to keep us on track toward meeting our greenhouse gas reduction targets,” Clark said in the release.

“[The] Climate Leadership Team announcement sends another signal to the world that B.C. is open for business in the booming global new climate economy,” added Merran Smith, executive director, Clean Energy Canada and fellow with Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue. “I look forward to supporting the conversation on how the province can continue to prosper while taking its climate leadership to the next level.”

The release noted that by July, a draft framework for the Climate Leadership Plan will be produced, with a 30-day public consultation on the resulting discussion paper. By October, the team will present its recommendations to government. By December, a draft Climate Leadership Plan will be prepared, and a 30-day public consultation will take place. And by March 2016, the final plan will be released publicly.