Emissions caused by BC oil, gas and coal undo all of BC’s climate leadership
xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) & səl̓ilwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Territories / VANCOUVER, BC – A new report by West Coast Environmental Law, BC’s Dirty Secret , explains that the Province of BC, as the owner and regulator of oil, gas and coal reserves, shares legal responsibility for fossil fuel pollution caused when those products are burned, and is failing in its legal and ethical obligations to regulate the climate change impacts of that pollution.
BC’s Dirty Secret finds that greenhouse gas emissions from oil, gas and coal produced in the province are 2.7 times larger than the province’s reported emissions, and with dire consequences. Currently each year’s production is expected to cause more than $40 billion in economic losses , and contribute to tens of thousands of deaths, globally. Based on provincial projections, the economic losses associated with annual production is expected to increase to over $200 billion per year by 2050.
According to the report’s author, Andrew Gage, international courts are increasingly finding that governments that permit fossil fuel production are legally responsible for resulting human rights violations, and Canadian courts are likely to find that the failure to account for and regulate these end-use emissions associated with fossil fuel production is a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“BC cannot claim to be a climate leader while also auctioning off ever greater quantities of the products that cause climate change,” said Gage. “BC needs to start acknowledging and reigning in the emissions that its products cause – and building an economy that supports sustainable livelihoods and does not violate the human rights of Canadians and others around the world.”
Internationally, courts are recognizing that the act of extracting oil, gas and coal from the ground is, legally, a cause of climate change, the first step in a causal chain that will see the fossil fuels burned and entering the atmosphere. BC’s climate plan, however, ignores the causal role of extraction in climate change, instead focusing narrowly on greenhouse gases that enter the atmosphere within the province’s borders (primarily through the burning of fossil fuels in the Province).
“Courts around the world, including in Canada, recognize that climate change is violating human rights on a massive scale – including the evacuations and deaths we’ve seen in Canada from wildfires, floods and heatwaves,” said Gage. “The BC government – by allowing fossil fuel companies to pump and mine ever greater quantities of its fossil fuel reserves while ignoring the resulting harm – is violating its legal responsibilities to Canadians and making our world a hotter, more dangerous place.”
For more information, please contact:
Andrew Gage | Staff Lawyer
[email protected]