xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) & səl̓ilwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Territories / VANCOUVER
Lawyers at West Coast Environmental Law criticized the CleanBC Review, released today, for recommending that the BC government reduce its climate ambition and for excusing and downplaying a history of weak climate action that has led to the province’s climate targets being missed.
“CleanBC’s targets were not unrealistic; they were just not taken seriously by the BC government,” said Andrew Gage, Staff Lawyer, West Coast Environmental Law. “If the government had followed through on its CleanBC promise to only allow LNG development that ‘fits within the Province’s climate commitments’ (CleanBC, p. 44) and delivered promised programs in a timely manner, we would have achieved the 2025 climate target to reduce the province’s greenhouse gas emissions to 56.6 MT and be on track to achieve the 2030 target.”
Lawyers note that setting and acting on strong climate targets is not only required under BC’s Climate Change Accountability Act, but also under international law. In July 2025, the International Court of Justice ruled that governments must reduce greenhouse gas emissions “as rapidly as possible” in accordance with their highest possible ambition.
“International law requires governments to set high-ambition climate targets and then exercise due diligence to achieve those targets in order to avoid violating human rights,” Gage elaborated. “The review acknowledges that the BC government failed to fully implement the CleanBC plan, and that LNG approvals have undermined our climate safety, but then wrongly concludes the problem was unrealistic targets. The reality is that the Province failed to deliver. CleanBC was not broken, but BC’s implementation of it absolutely was.”
In West Coast Environmental Law’s view, one of the reasons for BC’s failure to achieve its commitments was lack of regular and ongoing assessment and improvement of CleanBC, including the lack of an independent watchdog charged with sounding the alarm when the province fails to do enough. To this end, the CleanBC Review Panel’s recommendation to alter the composition and mandate of the Climate Solutions Council to fill an expert watchdog role is helpful. West Coast also endorses the call for a Citizen’s Assembly on Building a Sustainable Economy and to better incorporate the financial costs of climate change into government planning and decision-making.
West Coast does recognize the hard work of the CleanBC Review Panel and that most of the recommendations found in its report will, if implemented, help reduce BC’s greenhouse gas emissions. However, in West Coast’s view, the overall call to set targets based on short-term political calculations, as well as BC’s history of failing to fully implement its climate plans, raise fears that the Province’s future action will fall short of what is required to protect British Columbians from climate change.
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For more information, please contact:
Andrew Gage | Staff Lawyer, West Coast Environmental Law
604-601-2506, agage@wcel.org