Re: What the smoke says to us all (Letters, Aug. 20, 2018)
The B.C. government has promised to deliver, this fall, a climate solution and clean growth strategy. A strong plan must lower carbon pollution and incentivize clean innovation in the building, transportation, and industrial sectors.
Eliminating carbon pollution from existing homes and buildings should be B.C.’s next mega-project. To achieve this, B.C. needs to upgrade 30,000 houses, 17,000 apartments, and 3 million square metres of commercial space every year for the next two decades. We also need a strategy to reduce carbon pollution from freight, which is eclipsing any gains we’re making on passenger-vehicle emissions.
The government has been very supportive of the development of a liquefied natural gas export industry in B.C. Yet the natural gas sector is already B.C.’s biggest source of industrial carbon pollution and has a methane leak problem. B.C. can look to several U.S. states for examples of best practices that essentially eliminate venting from production and transportation.
A climate strategy that accelerates the low-carbon energy transition, cuts carbon pollution and delivers economic growth would be a welcome model for the rest of Canada and a legacy for future generations.
Karen Tam Wu,
B.C. managing director, Pembina Institute