Bill 38: Climate Change Accountability Amendment Act, 2019
In the legislature today, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy tabled Bill 38: Climate Change Accountability Amendment Act, 2019. As noted in the government’s press release, “better accountability, transparency and more detailed targets for climate action will be mandated under a new Climate Change Accountability Act.”
This is an important piece of legislation that the Ministry and my office worked on collaboratively over the last year.
While British Columbia already has legislated greenhouse gas reduction targets, as well as a requirement to collect data for tracking emissions, our targets are set ten years apart and data is published on a two-year delay. Combine that with a four-year government mandate and you create a situation where political parties spend the first two years blaming their predecessors for bad results and the next two years saying they are just getting started while making promises they can only fulfill if you vote them back in. Then, before you know it, the ten year target is within sight, but by that time it is too late to substantively change you emissions trajectory.
As a climate scientist, I know that transparent, accurate, timely, and publicly accessible data is crucial to achieving our climate commitments. Trust us is not good climate policy. The amendments included in this act add real credibility to our province’s efforts.
The transparency and accountability mechanisms embedded within this bill set an evidence-based foundation from which future climate change risk, adaptation and mitigation policy can be built.
Below I reproduce my speaking notes from the joint press conference Minister Heyman and I held. I also reproduce the press release that our office issued once the bill was introduced
Speaking Notes
The Climate Change Accountability Amendment Act tabled today demonstrates minority governments can move beyond political rhetoric and collaborate on ambitious climate legislation.
This act introduces transparency and accountability mechanisms that, if passed, will last well beyond this current government and set an evidence-based foundation from which all future climate policy can be built.
As a climate scientist, I know that transparent, accurate, timely, and publicly accessible data is crucial to achieving our climate commitments.
Trust us is not good climate policy. The amendments included in this act add real credibility to our province’s efforts.
British Columbia already has legislated greenhouse gas reduction targets, as well as a requirement to collect data for tracking emissions, but targets are set ten years apart and data is published on a two-year delay.
Combine that with a four-year government mandate and you create a situation where party leaders spend the first two years blaming their predecessors for bad results and the next two years saying they are just getting started while making promises they can only fulfill if you vote them back in. Then, before you know it, the ten year target is within sight, but by that time it is too late to substantively change you emissions trajectory.
I have seen so many promising policies fail because of this pattern of inaction, so fixing it was a top priority.
Bringing in diverse perspectives to tackle policy is the strength of this minority government. The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy has been exceptional in reaching out to our caucus over these many months. It has been a remarkable experience to collaborate with Minister Heyman and his team on the development of this critical piece of legislation.
Media Release
Legislation introduced to Ensure Climate Action Accountability
For immediate release
Oct. 30, 2019
VICTORIA, B.C. – The Climate Change Accountability Amendment Act tabled today demonstrates minority governments can move beyond political rhetoric and collaborate on ambitious climate legislation. This act introduces transparency and accountability mechanisms that, if passed, will last well beyond this current government and set an evidence-based foundation from which all future climate policy can be built.
“Campaign trail promises to address climate change are meaningless without concrete policy action to bring those promises to fruition,” said B.C. Green Party leader Dr. Andrew Weaver, MLA from Oak Bay- Gordon Head. “As a climate scientist, I know that transparent, accurate, timely, and publicly accessible data is crucial to achieving our climate commitments. ‘Trust us’ is not good climate policy. The amendments included in this act add real credibility to our province’s efforts.”
British Columbia already has legislated greenhouse gas reduction targets, as well as a requirement to collect data for tracking emissions, but targets are set ten years apart and data is published on a two-year delay.
“Combine that with a four-year government mandate and you create a situation where party leaders spend the first two years blaming their predecessors for bad results and the next two years saying they are just getting started while making promises they can only fulfill if you vote them back in,” said MLA Weaver. “I have seen so many promising policies fail because of this pattern of inaction, so fixing it was a top priority.”
This legislation will cut through those excuses by shortening the time scale and increasing transparency: Interim targets allow for evaluations and course corrections before it is too late; Annual emissions reporting standards and sectoral targets assist both industry and the public in identifying where emissions originate, which policies are working, which are not, and how everything aligns with our province’s fiscal forecast; A legislated and independent advisory committee will provide another check on government and ensure a diverse range of perspectives is always included.
“Bringing in diverse perspectives to tackle policy is the strength of this minority government,” Weaver said. “The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy has been exceptional in reaching out to our caucus over these many months. It has been a remarkable experience to collaborate with Minister Heyman and his team on the development of this critical piece of legislation.”
The Climate Change Accountability Amendment Act is a legislated component of CleanBC, which sets a pathway to a stronger, more sustainable future by reducing carbon pollution and creating economic opportunities across the province. CleanBC was collaboratively developed by the government and the B.C. Green Caucus and supports the commitment in the Confidence and Supply Agreement to implement climate action to meet B.C.’s emission targets.
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Media contact
Macon L.C. McGinley, Press Secretary
B.C. Green Caucus
+1 250-882-6187 | macon.mcginley@leg.bc.ca
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PS During a visit to the oceanographic lab on Andros Island, Bahamas, nearly 10 years ago, an oceanographer discloded how distraught he was, and extremely agitated at how rapidly ocean acidification (his specialty) was proceeding. During a SCUBA dive off the coast if Anguilla in the Caribbean a couple of years later, it was shocking to see that most of the corals were dead, with the sea floor littered with coral fragments that had broken from the reef, and the rest were dying. In our local Vancouver Island waters, returning here to retire 4 years ago, the disappearance of sea and land-based wildlife, from starfish, molluscs, fish and sea anemones to birds, plants, etc. Disclosure: I taught biology at the University of Victoria, including wildlife management, botany, economic entomology etc. and became a certified SCUBA diver in 1983.
Scandinavia (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland) banned lobbyists years ago. Their ballots list, by category and subcategory, what people pay their taxes for. Voters have 3 choices, for each: do you want to pay more, less, or the same in taxes? Examples: education, health care, infrastructure, etc. As one Swedish voter said, during elections, “Well, we may pay high taxes, but we know what we pay for.” Politicians either do what the voters want, or they are voted out the next election, or they resign. If they do what the voters want, they may retain their seats, or they may be elected to higher office. Who in Canada voted for unpopular subsidies? Who voted for buying the pipeline? How about revamping our healthcare system to improve it, and thereby reduce healthcare costs, by a MINIMUM of 50%? How about instituting unbiased cost-benefit analyses per the foregoing, and include emphases on climate change impacts? How about returning to a true democracy? “… a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Abraham Lincoln
I’m not sure that this graph is the best example of “transparent, accurate, timely, and publicly accessible data.”
“Global Land and Ocean Temperature Anomalies, January-December” – which part(s) are anomalies? How are they defined? What are the norms? Where were they measured?
This graph covers fewer than 140 years. How about graphs showing 1000 years? 100,000 years? 1,000,000 years?
I have those as well (reconstructed). The change over the last 100 years looks even more dramatic. This is just an illustrative graph.