BC election 2024: where do parties stand on climate?

The B.C. election race officially got underway this week with affordability, housing costs and healthcare already entrenched as top concerns for voters. 

Yet the climate crisis still ranks high as an election issue, right after health and pocketbook concerns — ahead of other problems like crime and the toxic drug crisis — and may be the deciding factor for undecided voters at the ballot box.

Climate disasters like wildfires, floods, drought and heat waves result in tremendous costs to the economy, household expenses like insurance or food costs and healthcare, said Katya Rhodes, a climate policy expert at the University of Victoria. 

Fighting the 2023 wildfires, the worst season in B.C.’s history, cost the province nearly $1.1 billion and this summer’s response costs are expected to reach $886 million, which does not include the losses of people’s homes and businesses, insurance costs, or the losses and added costs to farmers and ranchers. 

Fires, floods and landslides also result in the diversion of government dollars to repair or prepare infrastructure for climate disasters, such as fixing and upgrading highways following province-wide flooding in November 2021. Those costs also ballooned to more than $1 billion. 

“[Research] shows that the cost of climate change by far exceeds the cost of existing climate policy, and when you have climate policy in place, the cost of climate change is reduced,” Rhodes said. 

The costs emphasize the need for a comprehensive approach to climate policy that targets emissions reductions and climate adaption, Rhodes said, so voters can opt for “climate-sincere” governments. 

​​Despite the recent focus on eliminating the consumer carbon tax, the NDP government has implemented other carbon pollution measures, flexible regulations, and performance standards that have made B.C. a climate leader in Canada, Rhodes noted.

Climate Plans

The NDP government has a climate strategy, the CleanBC Roadmap, to meet its 2030 climate targets to reduce emissions by 40 per cent and reach net zero by 2050. The plan includes a range of measures and incentives aimed at the sectors generating the largest amount of emissions, including transport, oil and gas, buildings and industry.

Environmental groups question if the plan is enough to meet those goals, particularly around natural gas production, which has risen by 28 per cent in the last five years. 

BC Conservative Leader John Rustad, kicked out of the BC United Party for climate denial, has more recently acknowledged humans are contributing to global warming but asserts that it isn’t a crisis. 

The climate crisis isn’t the most pressing issue in the province or worldwide, he said in a policy statement, and “taxing everyday, working people into poverty won’t change the weather.” 

Rustad has vowed to tear up the CleanBC plan but, to date, hasn’t offered any detailed plan to reduce emissions. He has suggested “science and technology” as solutions to climate change. 

The Conservative leader has said the party’s climate change plan will focus on food production, water management and infrastructure but hasn’t offered specifics. 

In advance of the election, BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau has announced a commitment to phase out oil and gas, and significant increases to government funding to expand public transit and watershed security. 

Carbon pricing

NDP Leader David Eby recently caught flak for his sudden pivot on a consumer carbon tax, in place for 15 years in B.C. Carbon pricing has become increasingly unpopular nationally due to affordability attacks by the B.C. and federal Conservative parties that climate experts have described as a misinformation campaign. Eby has promised to shift the burden of carbon pricing to big polluters, but hasn't elaborated on how.

The NDP remains committed to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which sets staged targets and offers financial incentives to increase the amount of renewable or low carbon fuels by companies selling diesel, jet fuel and gasoline to reduce emissions and grow the clean fuel industry. 

Rustad has vowed to do away with B.C.’s clean fuel standards, in addition to ditching the carbon tax as well as gas taxes — some of which funds regional public transit. 

BC Greens are the only remaining provincial party that remains committed to implementing the carbon tax. Furstenau has also disputed the fairness of the current consumer carbon tax, in particular pointing out that pollution costs are fixed for the LNG Canada project — a huge source of future emissions — while regular consumers must pay increased rates. 

Oil and gas

The oil and gas sector generates about half of all industrial emissions and 20 per cent of B.C.’s total emissions, but accounts for two per cent of the economy based on the GDP, according to the province. 

The NDP crafted new rules, coming into place next year, to reduce methane emissions for the fossil fuel sector by 75 per cent from 2014 levels by the end of the decade. Conservation groups support the move as methane's climate impact is 28 times greater than carbon dioxide over a 100-year period. 

Eby has also promised to roll out an oil and gas emissions cap in 2026, if a federal plan doesn’t materialize, but in doing so delayed implementing a B.C. strategy originally slated for this year. 

The NDP government faces ongoing criticism from climate policy groups for its expansion of the liquified natural gas (LNG) export industry. The critics have noted that if all six proposed projects come online they would eat up 40 per cent of the B.C.’s emissions targets. In response, Eby has said LNG projects won’t be approved unless they demonstrate credible plans to be net-zero by 2030. 

Rustad is championing the fossil fuel sector’s promise to expand B.C.’s natural gas production and LNG export facilities and get oil and gas pipelines built. Pipelines deserve government support from the province,Rustad states, including the failed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, which aimed to ship Alberta’s tar sands bitumen to Kitimat for transport by supertankers and raised fears about coastal oil spills. 

The Conservative leader also intends to hold activists and groups protesting resource development legally and financially responsible for their actions if they use blockades, harassment or violence as protest tactics. 

 Furstenau wants to halt any future investment in fossil fuel infrastructure, including the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline, by directing the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office to allow the 2014 environmental certificate for the project to expire.

The project aims to connect the Coastal GasLink pipeline to the proposed Ksi Lisims LNG facility — both of which are owned by the Nisga’a Nation and its industry partner Western LNG. A court challenge to the pipeline has been launched by conservation groups and the Kispiox Band, while the Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs recently set up a road blockade against the pipeline’s construction.

Furstenau has also vowed to end permits for new fracking wells, to set a firm date to phase out gas production in B.C and to reject any new LNG projects, saying the NDP “continues to pour money into a dying industry.” Rather than propping up fossil fuels, she says, the government needs to protect people rather than polluters. 

The province also needs to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry with cheap water and electricity rates, Furstenau said. 

Clean transportation / Transit

Transportation — especially mid- and heavy-duty trucks and vehicles — remains the largest source of carbon pollution, generating 36 per cent of the province’s emissions. 

The NDP was the first government in the world to legislate a zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales target, where all cars sold by 2035 will be electric or hybrid. The province also offered rebates to purchase electric cars and invested in more than 4,700 public EV charging stations across B.C. to date, and committed to 10,000 charging stations by 2030. 

Rustad said he’ll stop the government “bailouts” to Lower Mainland transit operator TransLink, audit their books, and provide stop-gap funding while developing a new plan for a sustainable funding model. 

The Conservatives would also expedite the Surrey-Langley Skytrain project and secure more funding from the federal government for B.C.’s transit system. 

As an affordability measure for families, Furstenau has also pledged to make public transit in B.C. free, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while also dramatically boosting funding and services. 

The party would double the number of city buses in four years and triple fleets in eight years, and ensure hourly service along regional routes like Victoria to Nanaimo or Highway 16 in northern B.C.

To fund the change, Greens would ensure the province would spend the same amount on transit as it does on highways and roads and $420 million from the provincial budget, said Furstenau, adding transit infrastructure needs to be viewed as an essential service in the same way car infrastructure is now.

Clean energy

To meet a rise of 15 per cent in demand for clean electricity by 2030, the NDP has increased BC Hydro’s capital plan by 50 per cent and issued its first call for renewable energy projects, expected to contribute five per cent to the province’s electrical supply. 

But the plan is also generating criticism from environmental groups that suggest expanding the electrical grid to clean up liquefied natural gas production to meet emissions targets would require the same amount of energy as eight new Site C hydroelectric dams. 

Rustad says EVs and heat pumps would put the province into an electricity deficit. He has floated nuclear energy for B.C., which currently powers 98 per cent of its electrical grid with hydro electricity. 

The Green Party will boost investment in renewable energy, including small scale projects, to achieve 15 per cent solar power generation by 2035. 

Green buildings 

In May 2023, B.C’s building code changed so newly constructed buildings improve energy efficiency by 20 per cent or more. The NDP’s Zero Carbon Step Code also allows local governments to craft bylaws sooner than the province requires for lower emissions to meet the target that new homes are net-zero by 2030.

The NDP have also offered partial rebates and zero-interest loans for homes and buildings that switch to climate friendly electric heat pumps. 

Furstenau supports the Zero Carbon Step Code — suggesting it could be accelerated — and funneling funds from higher oil and gas carbon taxes to increase benefits for consumers like higher rebates for switching to heat pumps. 

• This story will be updated if any of the provincial parties announce significant new changes to their climate platform. 

Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada's National Observer