British Columbia's Approach

In response to the threat of climate change, our provincial government has established legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a targeted 33% below 2007 levels by the year 2020. The legislated target for 2050 is 'at least' 80% below 2007 levels. The 'at least' 2050 target is ~ 20% less than the 99.7% target for emission reductions advocated by Dogwood Initiative to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.

The government currently has a wide variety of programs and initiatives under way and in the works to try to get us to the 33% target by 2020. Most prominent among them is the carbon tax (Dogwood enthusiastically supports a carbon tax/cap-and-trade combination).

• 2008 Climate Action Plan
• 2008 Climate Action Team Report
  

The BC Governments support for the oil and gas industry works against its own climate change targets, and against those working towards them.

Compare the ~$1 billion set aside in the 2008 provincial budget over four years for climate programs to the ~$1.3 billion set aside for oil and gas subsidies over the same period. This is BC's Climate Contradiction