Because nothing is more important than protecting the place we call home, John Horgan and the BC NDP are fighting the climate crisis and creating opportunities for people across BC.

Our kids can’t afford stalling or setting back the progress we’re making – and we just can’t accept a future of massive forest fires, flooding, and air and water that makes us sick. Instead we can build a cleaner, stronger future together.

Under the BC NDP, we have the strongest climate plan in North America, and we’re planning for a future powered by clean, renewable energy. That’s why we will pass legislation to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Since the BC NDP climate action plan was launched two years ago, we’ve moved quickly to reduce carbon pollution across key sectors of our economy. With the CleanBC plan, we’ve regulated big polluters to reduce remissions, legislated strong climate targets, and passed a Climate Change Accountability Act to keep all future governments accountable for their climate progress.

We’ve got record numbers of electric cars on the roads, and within a dozen years new buildings will produce as much energy as they consume. We’re helping communities of all sizes make the switch to clean energy and prepare for the climate impacts that we’re already grappling with.

And just as we were ramping up our climate action, another crisis hit us. But we can do what it takes to protect our communities in the face of both climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than ever, times are hard during the pandemic, and the switch to clean energy needs to be affordable. The BC NDP is making sure that everyone can reduce their carbon footprint – that means we will ramp up rebates for electric cars, rebates for home efficiency upgrades, and incentives for e-bikes, and we increased the carbon price rebate for low and middle income families.

As we make record recovery investments to build BC back stronger, we will make sure that thousands of public buildings – including schools, public housing, hospitals, and universities – reduce their energy consumption, and are healthier and more comfortable as a result.

We’re helping people get out of their cars by boosting public transit and we will move communities across BC to all-electric bus fleets. We’re creating a seamless network of charging stations through increased incentives for home and workplace charging stations and ‘right-to-charge’ legislation that gets charging infrastructure into more strata and apartment buildings.

By safeguarding and restoring nature we can better withstand the shocks that are coming with a changing climate.

We will work with Indigenous and local communities to protect more of BC’s old growth forests and wildlife habitats, create a watershed security strategy to protect our clean water, and invest in community restoration of waterways and shorelines. We will make polluters pay for cleanup of abandoned projects. And to tackle the mounting problem of plastics pollution, we will begin phasing out single-use plastics province-wide.

(Just in the last month, nearly 130 tonnes of shoreline garbage have been removed by First Nations communities and ecotourism operators–thanks to a recovery grant from the John Horgan government. Photo credit: Jack Plant)

Industrial emissions need to come down, and CleanBC will ramp up industrial electrification and get more industrial vehicles running on cleaner energy. To make sure our reduction goals are being met, we’ll employ world-leading regulations and technologies to detect and reduce harmful methane emissions. And we will conduct a comprehensive review of oil and natural gas royalty credits.

John Horgan and the BC NDP are taking the climate crisis seriously.

The BC Liberals said they cared about climate change and then failed to act. After 16 years, they abandoned action on climate pollution and gave up on meeting climate targets. They convened a climate leadership panel and then ignored nearly all of their recommendations. Their current platform barely mentions climate change and puts peanuts towards reducing emissions, and would create tax loopholes for polluters. And they have no plan to make sure that people who are struggling can make ends meet with the switch to cleaner fuels – something we’ve addressed with targeted rebates and direct support for low and middle income families.

Yes, our climate plan is about protecting our environment and communities – but it’s also about people. It’s about harnessing our skills and knowledge, our diverse and abundant natural resources, and our innovative spirit to create good jobs and sustainable solutions. It’s about working together to make sure every person and community in BC is part of the cleaner, stronger future we are building together.

Just like we’re united to protect our communities during this pandemic, with the John Horgan team we are coming together to take care of this beautiful place for our kids and our grandkids. And we have so much more work to do.