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B.C. Climate News Jan. 24 to Jan. 30, 2022: Burnaby latest city to endorse treaty to transition away from fossil fuels | Province developing plan to protect ecosystems

Here’s your weekly update with the latest climate change news for the week of Jan. 24 to Jan. 30, 2022.

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Here’s your weekly update with what you need to know about climate change and the steps B.C. is taking to address the climate and ecological crises for the week of Jan. 24 to Jan. 30, 2022.

This week in climate news, Burnaby sings on to the global Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and the B.C. government announced that it’s developing a new strategy to protect watersheds in response to threats posed by climate change.

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The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned for years that wildfires, drought, severe weather, such as B.C.’s deadly heat dome in June, and flooding would become more frequent and more intense because of the climate crisis.

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Check back here every Saturday for a roundup of the latest climate and environmental stories. You can also get up to date B.C.-focussed news delivered to your inbox by 7 a.m. by subscribing to our newsletter here.


A glance at B.C.’s carbon numbers:

  • B.C.’s gross greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2019 (latest available data:) 68.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e.) This is an increase of 3.0 MtCO2e, or 5 per cent since 2007, the baseline year.
  • B.C.’s net emissions in 2019: 67.2 MtCO2e, an increase of 1.5 MtCO2e, or two per cent, since 2007.
  • B.C.’s 2030 target: 40 per cent reduction in net emissions below 2007 levels.
  • B.C.’s 2040 target: 60 per cent reduction.
  • B.C.’s 2050 target: 80 per cent reduction.
  • Canada’s 2030 emissions target: Between 40 and 45 per cent reduction.
  • Canada’s 2050 emissions target: Net-zero.

(Source: B.C. and Canada governments)

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Climate change quick facts:

  • The Earth is now about 1.1 C warmer than it was in the 1800s.
  • Human activities have raised atmospheric concentrations of COby nearly 49 per cent above pre-industrial levels starting in 1850.
  • The world is not on track to meet the Paris Agreement target to keep global temperature from exceeding 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels, the upper limit to avoid the worst fallout from climate change.
  • 2015-2019 were the five warmest years on record while 2010-2019 was the warmest decade on record.
  • On the current path of carbon dioxide emissions, the temperature could increase by as much as 4.4 C by the end of the century.
  • In 2019, greenhouse gas concentrations reached new highs. Carbon dioxide levels were 148 per cent of preindustrial levels.
  • Emissions must drop 7.6 per cent per year from 2020 to 2030 to keep temperatures from exceeding 1.5 C and 2.7 per cent per year to stay below 2 C.
  • 97% of climate scientists agree that the climate is warming and that human beings are the cause.

(Source: United Nations IPCCWorld Meteorological Organization,UNEP, Nasa, climatedata.ca)


GUIDES AND LINKS

B.C. Flood: Read all our coverage on the Fraser Valley and beyond

Frequently asked questions about climate change: NASA

Climate change made B.C. heat wave 150 times more likely, study concludes

B.C.’s heat wave: Intense weather event is linked to climate crisis, say scientists

Expert: climate change expected to bring longer wildfire seasons and more area burned

Vancouver outlines its Climate Emergency Action Plan

Port Moody joins other Metro Vancouver cities in declaring a climate emergency

COVID-19 may have halted massive protests, but youth are taking their fight for the future to the courts

Climate displacement a growing concern in B.C. as extreme weather forces residents out of their homes


LATEST CLIMATE NEWS

Burnaby latest city to endorse treaty to transition away from fossil fuels

Burnaby has become the latest city to sign on to a global treaty that recognizes the climate emergency and the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels.

City council voted unanimously this week to endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, which calls on governments and corporations to speed up the transition to clean energy.

Mayor Mike Hurley said the move builds on the climate emergency declaration the city made in 2019, adding Burnaby is committed to a transformative plan to drastically reduce carbon emissions.

“But to avoid the worst effects of climate change, it is clear that the global community must support a rapid and just transition away from fossil fuels. That’s why the City of Burnaby is proud to endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty,” he said in a statement.

Read more HERE.

—Tiffany Crawford

Advice on nurturing new forests in B.C. after serial climate catastrophes

Forest ecologist Suzanne Simard has devoted her career to groundbreaking research into understanding the rich communities of biodiversity formed in healthy forests beneath the canopy of what she has dubbed mother trees.

Simard weaves the story of that journey through her best-selling book Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, so she has an understanding of how forestry has contributed to B.C.’s serial crises of catastrophic wildfires and devastating floods.

And that research about the importance of “mother trees” offers ideas for how forestry can also be used to rehabilitate forests in ways that can mitigate future climate impacts.

“Definitely, forestry has played a big role in what’s happened,” said Simard, a professor of ecology in the University of B.C.’s faculty of forestry during a recent interview with Postmedia News.

With the public’s attention focused on climate change and forestry though, Simard also senses “we’re at that moment” for change.

Read more HERE.

—Derrick Penner

British Columbia developing plan to protect drinking water, ecosystems

Severe drought, wildfires, flooding and landslides in British Columbia last year show that responding to climate change requires focusing on water and strengthening natural defences provided by healthy watersheds, an expert says.

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“We’ve all learned that climate crisis is a water crisis,” said Oliver Brandes, co-director of the University of Victoria’s POLIS Project on Ecological Governance.

“Our best hedge against these challenges is to ensure the security of our watersheds and improve our capacity to manage water sustainably,” he said.

The B.C. government announced Tuesday that it’s developing a new strategy to protect watersheds and drinking water in response to threats posed by climate change combined with the effects of urban and industrial development.

Creating the strategy is an important step to help the province set its priorities and hopefully incorporate a greater focus on water as it modernizes land-use planning, Brandes said in an interview.

Read more HERE.

—The Canadian Press

U.S. judge annuls Gulf of Mexico oil auction over climate impact

A federal judge invalidated the results of an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday saying the Biden administration failed to properly account for the auction’s climate change impact.

The decision has cast uncertainty over the future of the U.S. federal offshore drilling program, which has been a big source of public revenue for decades but also drawn the ire of activists concerned about its impact on the environment and contribution to global warming.

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The Gulf of Mexico accounts for 15% of existing U.S. oil production and 5% of dry natural gas output, according to the Energy Information Administration.

In the decision, Judge Rudolph Contreras of the United States District Court of the District of Columbia ruled to vacate the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Lease Sale 257, which offered about 80 million offshore acres (37.4 million hectares) in the Gulf of Mexico in an auction last November.

Read more HERE.

—Reuters

B.C. forest watchdog recommends improving forest management to protect water

British Columbia’s forest watchdog has identified four key areas where the management of forestry practices can negatively affect water and outlines potential opportunities for the province to improve regulations.

A report by the Forest Practices Board says that at least a third of the public complaints it has received since 1995 have involved the potential for forestry and range practices to affect water, including drinking water, the integrity of ecosystems, as well as public infrastructure and private property.

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It says that while the board usually found forest licensees were in compliance with provincial laws, gaps in legal requirements mean that forestry activities, including harvesting and the construction of forest service roads, can contribute to the risk of landslides, flooding and other water-related problems downstream.

The report released Wednesday says there are no legal requirements to consider the cumulative effects of forestry, or other industries and development in most B.C. watersheds.

Read more HERE.

—The Canadian Press

B.C. Appeal Court extends injunction against old-growth logging protests

A court injunction against old-growth logging protests on Vancouver Island has been extended until next fall in a B.C. Court of Appeal decision that overturns a lower-court ruling.

In a unanimous decision Wednesday, a panel of three judges granted the appeal by forestry company Teal Cedar Products Ltd. of a B.C. Supreme Court decision that denied the company’s application to extend the injunction by one year.

More than 1,100 people have been arrested while protesting old-growth logging in the Fairy Creek area near Port Renfrew, about 110 kilometres west of Victoria.

Company spokesman Conrad Browne said some timber harvesting activities are now taking place.

“There are areas that we can’t get to because of winter weather, but that doesn’t preclude us from going and harvesting other areas in tree farm licence 46,” said Browne, who is Teal Cedar’s director of Indigenous engagement and strategic relations.

Read more HERE.

—The Canadian Press


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