Image by Li-An Lim.
In response to the Province of B.C. splitting the economy into four sectors to establish targets for climate emissions reductions by 2030, Georgia Strait Alliance’s Energy Campaigner Andrew Radzik, says:
“We applaud the B.C. government for setting a standalone target for the oil and gas industry. However, we are concerned with how it can be realistically reached. The oil and gas industry in B.C. is responsible for greater emissions than the sum of all other industries in the province, totalling 20 percent of the province’s emissions, while providing fewer than half of one percent of employment.
“And these emissions are set to rise even higher: the unbuilt LNG Canada project in Kitimat stands to be the largest source of carbon pollution in Canada, and more fracking is projected to come online to feed it.
“By setting a stand alone target, the government has today acknowledged that growing this sector makes B.C.’s climate goals virtually unachievable.
“The Province provided nearly a billion dollars of taxpayer-funded subsidies to fossil fuel corporations for their operations in B.C. last year. They’ve given more than $5 billion in subsidies to the unbuilt LNG Canada project.
“Subsidizing this expansion while setting a reduction target for the industry simply doesn’t add up.
“Setting this target, while important, is not enough. Without ending subsidies to this climate-destabilizing industry, B.C. will miss yet another in a long string of unmet climate targets. We’re in a climate emergency, and we must act like it.”
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