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A mixed media collage shows a an oil rig and pipeline beside a train and storage containers. Snow covered mountains and smoke stacks are in the background.

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Suing the B.C. government for a lack of climate plans

Sierra Club of British Columbia Foundation v Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy

March 31, 2022

Ecojustice is suing the B.C. government for failing to present plans to achieve several key climate targets, as required by its own climate change legislation.  

This failure undermines the B.C. government’s climate leadership credentials, falls foul of its legal commitments to transparency and accountability on climate action, and risks locking the province into a high carbon future. 

B.C. continues to emit more and more carbon pollution while the climate crisis is battering the province. With the increased frequency of deadly weather events caused by the climate crisis, anything less than full transparency about their plans is simply unacceptable. 

British Columbians have a right to expect that their government follow the letter of the laws they author.

Ecojustice will argue that the government has failed to present plans that show how it will progress to make all its climate targets, which it is required to do by law. 

The provincial Climate Change Accountability Act requires the government to publish annual reports on how it plans to make progress towards all its climate targets. The 2021 report falls woefully short, by failing to include a plan for the 2025, 2040 and 2050 climate targets. It also omits the government’s plan to cut carbon pollution from the oil and gas sector, which could rapidly grow in coming years – fueled largely by the B.C. government’s support for fracked gas. 

Through this action, Ecojustice intends to force the government to be accountable to and transparent with the B.C. public and develop plans to reduce carbon pollution, now. 

Decarbonization can only take place in a phased approach. So, while 2050 may seem like a long ways off, the government must make its shorter term climate goals to have any chance of achieving net-zero by 2050. 

Ecojustice staff

Andhra Azevedo
Matt Hulse

 

Clients/Partners

Sierra Club BC

Jan 2023
A mixed media collage shows a an oil rig and pipeline beside a train and storage containers. Snow covered mountains and smoke stacks are in the background.
press release

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A mixed media collage shows a an oil rig and pipeline beside a train and storage containers. Snow covered mountains and smoke stacks are in the background.
press release

Latest B.C. climate accountability report shows the province is set to miss key climate targets in 2025 and 2030
The report is also missing information about how the province plans to meet its longer-term targets, as well as those tied to emissions in the oil & gas sector.
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A mixed media collage shows a an oil rig and pipeline beside a train and storage containers. Snow covered mountains and smoke stacks are in the background.
press release

Sierra Club BC and Ecojustice in court to call for accountability on climate plans from the B.C. government
Members of the public will rally in support of the case on the Vancouver law courts steps prior to the hearing VANCOUVER/UNCEDED xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (MUSQUEAM), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (SQUAMISH) AND səlilwətaɬ (TSLEIL-WAUTUTH) TERRITORIES –  Sierra Club BC, represented by Ecojustice lawyers, is before the B.
Mar 2022
A mixed media collage shows a an oil rig and pipeline beside a train and storage containers. Snow covered mountains and smoke stacks are in the background.
press release

Environmental groups sue B.C. government over ‘missing in action’ climate plans
Groups say BC.

VIDEO: Why are we suing the B.C. government for a lack of climate plans?

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