Public Input on BC’s ‘Clean Growth Future’ Strategy Open Until August 24

On July 20, 2018, the provincial government released three intentions papers that will be available for comment until August 24, 2018. The papers focus on sustainable growth in three sectors – transportation, buildings and industry – with additional papers expected to be released in 2019 to address other areas including low carbon energy, communicates and waste, clean transportation systems and adapting to climate change.

The papers addressing clean transportation and clean buildings may be of particular interest to local governments as they contemplate different approaches to transportation and land use planning, as well as changes to the provincial Building Code.

The strategy under development, which is being branded as “BC’s strategy for a clean growth future”, is focused on building a strong, sustainable and innovative economy for BC by capitalizing on our access to clean energy sources in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the province. The provincial government’s long-term vision for the strategy is to encourage the creation and use of innovations to reduce the emissions of British Columbians in a manner that “can help us capture a larger share of the global market for clean energy solutions, technologies and expertise”.

Each intention paper outlines multiple proposals on which the provincial government is seeking feedback.

Clean Transportation

Cleaner Vehicles
• Incentives to increase investments in zero emission vehicles could include continuation of the existing Clean Energy Vehicle Program, preferential parking for zero emission vehicles, PST exemptions, or inducements to encourage businesses and others to provide charging stations
• Provincial mandate to require transition to zero emission vehicle sales with a future ban on sales of new gasoline and diesel light duty vehicles

Cleaner Fuels
• Continued regulation of carbon intensity of fuels
• Support for the development of lower carbon intensity fuels could include tax exemptions for renewable fuel blends, programs to promote investments in renewable fuel infrastructure, or the establishment of a central of excellence for biofuels

Cleaner Transportation Systems
• Continued investments in public transit
• Integrated transportation and land use planning across levels of government to improve infrastructure for alternative modes of transportation including cycling, walking and transit
• Working with local and federal governments to ensure infrastructure is located, designed and maintained to withstand extreme weather events which may become more frequent due to climate change

Clean Buildings

• Establish an energy labelling requirement for buildings
• Provide financial incentives to encourage energy-saving and emission-reducing building retrofits
• Amendments to the Building Code to increase energy efficiency standards and to require electric vehicle charging stations
• Establish a provincial Low Carbon Buildings Innovation Program to facilitate and encourage research, commercialization and demonstration of innovative building technologies
• Establishment of training and certification programs in energy efficiency retrofitting for construction professionals

Industry

• Establish a ‘Clean Growth Program’ for industry that uses a portion of provincial carbon tax revenues to incentivize emission reduction projects in traditional industries and to provide rebates to industrial operations that meet “world-leading emissions benchmarks”

The intentions papers will be available for comment until August 24, 2018. Comments can be left via the online discussion platform or can be submitted via email to clean.growth@gov.bc.ca. All comments must be received by August 24, 2018 at 4pm.

Sabrina Spencer

Download pdf: Public Input on BC’s ‘Clean Growth Future’ Strategy Open Until August 24