BC NDP

VICTORIA- The B.C. Liberal government is tarnishing British Columbia's reputation by continuing to make misleading claims about the environmental impact of our Olympic games, says New Democrat environment critic Rob Fleming.

"The B.C. Liberal government continues to compound their credibility problem by misrepresenting the achievements we have made as we strive to green the games," said Fleming. "I'm appalled that the B.C. Liberal premier made misleading statements about the 2010 Winter Olympics being carbon neutral last month while he was in Copenhagen."

The David Suzuki Foundation has calculated that VANOC would need to offset 328 thousand tons of direct and indirect emissions in order to host a carbon neutral games. Only 118 thousand tons of carbon are actually being offset by the Olympic committee.

"Premier Campbell is setting B.C. up for international embarrassment by repeatedly stating that the games are carbon neutral when, in fact, less than half the total emissions are being offsets," said Fleming. "He is risking our province's ability to tell any good news stories about the Games' sustainability initiatives."

Fleming noted that games organizers have made a number of efforts to mitigate the environmental impact of the international sporting event, but they have not delivered on their promise on carbon neutrality.

"As a province we should strive to communicate the environmental initiatives attached to our hosting of the Olympic games without trying to deceive the international community about areas where this government has clearly fallen short of targets," said Fleming.

Fleming says the fact that last year British Columbia was the only province to see rising levels of industrial greenhouse gas emissions shows the government needs to do significantly more to reduce B.C.'s increasing carbon emissions in the global effort on climate change.

"It is important for us to be honest about the continuing challenges we face as we work towards tackling climate change," said Fleming. "By trying to spin a story that we are achieving carbon neutrality at the Winter Olympics or in any other sector where greenhouse gas targets are being missed, we run the risk of breeding cynicism with our international guests and the media and minimizing the effort and public support needed to build a truly green economy."

Carole James and the New Democrats are advocating for positive environmental solutions, including a Green Fund which would see $150 million a year of carbon tax revenue directed towards climate change solutions and transit improvements in communities across the province.