British Columbia is not just the home of the 2010 Winter Olympics. In 2010, the government of BC is scheduled to become a world leader in the environmental movement with regard to Carbon Credits. It has been legislated into law that BC Crown Corporations, and Government bodies must become carbon neutral by 2010. This is the first measures of this nature being implemented in North America.
Carbon Neutral huh? That’s a great buzz word, but what does it really mean?
Well, Carbon Neutral is a slightly deceiving term since it doesn’t mean zero carbon output or completely offset carbon output. Let paste the definition from the Ministry of Environment’s website glossary:
Carbon Neutral
Being carbon neutral refers to maintaining a balance between producing and using carbon. For example, we release carbon dioxide when we burn fossil fuels in vehicles. We can balance out those emissions by planting trees because vegetation absorbs carbon dioxide. There are many ways governments, industry and individuals can work towards being carbon neutral. An organization is carbon neutral if it has calculated its total emissions, taken measures to minimize those emissions, and used emissions offsets to net those emissions to zero.
My initial reaction to this term coming from the glossary of the BC Ministry of Environment was “wow, I guess tax payers will be forking over major amounts of taxes to pay for the government to completely offset all carbon output by the Government.
That’s not exactly true. You see Carbon Neutral as a definition and Carbon Neutral as interpreted in the legislature are two entirely different things. The above definition of the word serves it’s purpose in the glossary, while you need to dig a little deeper to find the true meaning of Carbon Neutral to the government.
Let me help. Here’s a snapshot of the Public Sector Carbon Neutral Plan from the BC Climate Action Secretariat:
A Carbon Neutral Public Sector
- Carbon neutrality involves reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and offsetting remaining emissions by investing in offset projects.
- Carbon neutrality does not mean zero GHG emissions; it means net zero GHG emissions once offsetting is counted.
- The B.C. government is setting an example and working to ensure that all its operations are carbon neutral by 2010. This commitment – enshrined in legislation – is the first of its kind in North America.
- It applies to all provincial public sector operations, including government ministries and agencies, schools, colleges, universities, health authorities and Crown corporations.
- To achieve carbon neutrality, everyone who works for the Province is required to:
- o Report on their current GHG emissions as a baseline starting point.
- o Reduce these emissions as much as possible, such as by replacing government travel, where possible, with teleconferencing..
- o Offset the remaining emissions by investing in projects that reduce GHG emissions enough to make the net impact of all public sector operations neutral.
- Core government business travel has already been carbon neutral since October 2007.
- The 2008 provincial budget includes more than $100 million to enable the public sector to become carbon neutral. This is supporting energy efficiency upgrades to public buildings, along with communication tools to reduce the need for government travel.
- All new provincially-owned or leased facilities now must provide healthy workspaces while reducing GHG emissions. To accomplish this, new government buildings must be built to at least the LEED gold or equivalent standard. LEED is the recognized standard in environmentally friendly building design.
Well, I don’t blame you if you just skimmed this section. The general consenses about the word “Carbon Neutral” from the above simply means WE THE PUBLIC SECTOR WILL PRODUCE LESS CARBON OUTPUT THAN WE DID IN 2007 OR WE THE PUBLIC SECTOR WILL PAY FOR CARBON OFFSETS ABOVE THAT BASELINE AMOUNT.
This does not look like the same Carbon Neutral that was defined at the beginning of this article, but it is a step in the right direction.
Check back later as we follow up with a discussion about who the BC Government and potentially all Canadian Governments will be buying their carbon offsets from.
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