History of failed climate change goals leaves critics with little faith in B.C.'s latest plan

Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of a CBC News initiative entitled Our Changing Planet to show and explain the effects of climate change and what is being done about it.

For years now, B.C. has been heading in the exact opposite direction of its climate change goals.

While British Columbians have endured drought, deadly wildfires, record-breaking heat waves and "bomb cyclone" rainstorms, the province's greenhouse gas emissions have risen.

The new "CleanBC Roadmap to 2030," released earlier this week, was trumpeted as the antidote to that trend, promising significant reductions in emissions over the next three decades before reaching net zero in 2050.

But critics who've watched the province repeatedly miss its targets for emissions say it's hard to have faith this plan is achievable — especially considering B.C.'s continued support of the oil and gas industry.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs said it's "totally unrealistic" to expect that emissions can fall dramatically while the government props up fossil fuels, including liquid natural gas.

"CleanBC is in many ways a 'Jetsons' vision of the future that doesn't take into consideration the immediate peril that British Columbians find themselves in the midst of," Phillip told CBC News.

Indigenous and environmental advocates say there's a disappointing lack of detail in B.C.'s plans to reduce emissions in light of the billions of dollars in subsidies it provides to the fossil fuel industry.

They argue the province's history of failure in meeting its own emissions reduction goals means there needs to be a full public accounting of the drastic steps that will be taken to fight global warming.

"We want to see the math," said Alan Andrews, climate program director for advocacy group EcoJustice.

"We have seen too many missed targets in the past. We have seen projections of compliance with targets that proved to be wildly overoptimistic."

The "roadmap" released this week outlines an intention to get greenhouse gas emissions down to 40 per cent below 2007 levels by 2030. It includes increased carbon pollution prices, accelerated targets for zero-emission vehicle use and requirements for industry to come up with plans to meet their legislated emissions targets.

An environment ministry spokesperson described the plan as "a comprehensive, detailed plan that is fully modelled and third-party verified" in an email to CBC, and said details on the program for reducing emissions from industries including oil and gas will be released in 2023.

Andrews said that while there are some good elements, the measures in the plan don't appear to be strong enough.