British Columbia has taken home an award from the United Nations COP26 climate conference for their part in trying tackle climate change and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
On Sunday the provincial government announced its CleanBC Program for Industry was awarded the most creative climate solution from the Under2 Coalition.
The Under2 Coalition is a group of state and regional governments from around the world committed to ambitious climate action in line with the Paris agreement.
“It’s an honour to receive the award recognizing the success of this program is about strong collaboration supporting innovation. The award is another indication that we are on the right path through the new CleanBC Roadmap to 2030,” said George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.
According to the government, the CleanBC program has two specific initiatives that encourages investment in clean technologies and operations that reduce industrial emissions.
The first – called the CleanBC Industry Fund – uses a portion of carbon tax revenue paid by large emitters to co-invest in projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in sectors such as mining, pulp and paper, cement, agriculture, and oil and gas. The second – called the CleanBC Industrial Incentive Program – reduces carbon tax costs for operators if they can demonstrate they are among the lowest emitting in the world for their sector.
The program has invested $43 million into 32 different projects, which combined are expected to reduce ~1.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent to 2030.
Provincial targets for reductions in GHG emissions for industry are 38-43% below 2007 levels by 2030, and for the oil and gas sector to be 33-38% below 2007 levels by 2030.
