Tag Archives: Jens Wieting

Cost of Climate Change

BC made small gains on emissions — but the province is scrapping climate measures

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

British Columbia’s modest climate gains are at risk after a wave of policy clawbacks this past year. 

According to the province’s recent accountability report â€” which reflects BC’s climate data on a two-year lag — carbon pollution declined by four per cent in 2023, meaning emissions are now 9 per cent below the 2007 baseline. 

The province has also nearly halved methane emissions in the oil and gas sector from 2014, meeting this year’s target two years early. 

However, many climate measures that are just beginning to bear fruit, or will soon — such as the consumer carbon tax, electric vehicle rebates and sales mandates and net-zero requirements for liquified natural gas (LNG) projects — have been pruned back or chopped entirely in 2025. What’s more, the province scrapped the promised oil and gas sector emissions cap and never delivered a clean transportation plan although fossil fuel vehicles continue to account for 41 per cent of the BC’s carbon pollution. 

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Energy

BC’s Cedar LNG subsidy courts financial liability

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The BC government’s $200-million subsidy to electrify the Cedar LNG project is drawing sharp criticism as a fossil fuel handout and an unwise investment that also opens up potential legal risks after a new International Court of Justice ruling.

Premier David Eby and Energy Minister Adrian Dix said the public funding will go to the electrification of the Cedar LNG terminal, a floating liquefied natural gas facility co-owned by the Haisla Nation and Pembina Pipeline Corporation near Kitimat that is expected to come online in 2028. 

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Forests

B.C. misses the mark with old growth update, critics claim

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The B.C. government continues to move at a glacial pace to meet an overdue promise to transform the logging industry and protect endangered old growth forests and ecosystems, say B.C. conservation groups. 

On Monday, the province issued its latest progress report on transforming forestry practices to preserve ancient forests and vital ecosystems and meet 14 calls to action from the old-growth strategic review (OGSR) completed in spring of 2020. 

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Forests

BC confirms Sierra Club’s findings on 2021 old-growth logging

Editor’s note: Forestry is one of Campbell River’s 3 economic pillars and this confirmation of what the environmentalists have been saying about the need to preserve old growth is very important.

By Madeline Dunnett, The Discourse, , Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The province-wide old-growth rally on Sept. 28 brought attention to the 14 recommendations the provincial government committed to implementing in 2020 to protect old-growth forests.

The recommendations came out of a multi-year independent strategic review of how B.C. forests are managed and included an immediate recommendation that the province work with First Nations to defer logging in old, at-risk forests until the new strategy was implemented.

Shortly before the rally, Sierra Club BC, a provincial environmental advocacy group, issued a review of B.C.’s old-growth logging stating it had increased between 2020 and 2021, instead of decreased, as the government had previously announced. 

The Discourse followed up with the B.C. Ministry of Forests about the number of old-growth logged, and the ministry responded with the same number released by Sierra Club. 

Continue reading BC confirms Sierra Club’s findings on 2021 old-growth logging →
Forests

On third anniversary of B.C’s promise to protect old-growth, ancient trees still falling

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Conservation groups are alarmed that endangered old-growth forests continue to fall three years after B.C. promised to protect the ancient ecosystems and transform the province’s approach to forestry.

The province hasn’t fully met any of the 14 recommendations of the 2020 Old Growth Strategic Review (OGSR), said Torrance Torrance Coste, national campaign director for the Wilderness Committee.

Continue reading On third anniversary of B.C’s promise to protect old-growth, ancient trees still falling →