The Energy Mix

Top Menu

  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact

Main Menu

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Donate

logo

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
Advanced Search
AsiaCanadaCarbon-Free TransitionCoalEnergy/Carbon Pricing & EconomicsFinance & InvestmentFirst PeoplesHuman Rights & MigrationOil & GasShale & FrackingSub-National Governments
Home›Jurisdictions›Asia›CCPA: B.C. Must Plan for Managed Decline Before International Fossil Markets Scale Back

CCPA: B.C. Must Plan for Managed Decline Before International Fossil Markets Scale Back

March 6, 2020
March 6, 2020
 
117
0
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story
Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures

British Columbia may be running out of time to plan for a managed decline of its fossil fuel industry, given the prospect that the Asian governments the province is counting on to buy its products may soon be making their own transition to a green economy, warns a new report issued this week by the B.C. office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

The report by CCPA B.C. Senior Economist Marc Lee and public policy researcher Seth Klein urges the province to set carbon budgets and fossil fuel production limits, invest in a domestic transition based on a green industrial strategy, ensure a just transition for fossil workers and communities, and reform its current royalty regime for fossil extraction.

Like this story? Subscribe to The Energy Mix and never miss an edition of our free e-digest.

SUBSCRIBE

“Imagine it’s 2025 and because of the escalating climate crisis, governments in Asia have declared ambitious new climate action plans and an aggressive transition off natural gas,” Lee and Klein write in a CCPA policy note based on the report. “B.C.’s fossil fuel exports would soon dry up, workers would be laid off, and local communities would lose public and private sector jobs.”

It’s that type of scenario that “needs to inform planning for B.C.’s fossil fuel industries (coal, oil, and gas), not the government’s continued interest in expanding their production and export,” they add. “The government has shown little willingness to contemplate a managed wind-down so long as there are external buyers for B.C. fossil fuels.” But that attitude is risky when market conditions could suddenly change, other countries could shift to more ambitious climate policies, or importers could cut their fossil fuel consumption.

“Fully phasing out B.C.’s fossil fuel industries over the next 20 to 30 years may be—for now at least—politically unthinkable,” Lee and Klein acknowledge. But that just points to a “necessary conversation” about a shift that must be grounded in a fair transition for fossil workers and resource communities, and acknowledgement of Indigenous rights and title.

Much of the summary points to the opportunities B.C. can tap into by taking charge of the shift ahead.

“Decarbonization is increasingly seen as a new framework for economic development transition,” Lee and Klein write. “A forward-thinking green industrial strategy, informed by climate justice considerations, should serve as a template for growing jobs and incomes in the transition to zero-carbon. Shifting investment patterns away from fossil fuels and toward green alternatives is essential for a managed wind-down.”

But that transition only works if the government puts affected workers and communities at the centre of its thinking. “The transition before us will see a net increase in jobs overall,” they note. But “they will not be the same jobs in the same places,” and “the bigger challenge is that direct fossil fuel jobs are highly concentrated in certain regions of B.C., and green investments (such as a new transit line) may not be in the same geographic area.”

In the course of a 20- to 30-year process, many of today’s fossil workers will be ready to retire with the promise of decent, stable pensions. For those who stay in the work force, “examples of green jobs include remediation of old coal mines and oil and gas wells, building green infrastructure and renewable energy projects, and deriving additional value from renewable resource sectors, in particular forestry.”

TagsCanada Net Zero - Action PracticeCities - SolutionsEnergy Central - Energy Collective
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story

Find more stories about
AsiaCanadaCarbon-Free TransitionCoalEnergy/Carbon Pricing & EconomicsFinance & InvestmentFirst PeoplesHuman Rights & MigrationOil & GasShale & FrackingSub-National Governments

    Leave a reply Cancel reply

    Recent Posts

    • BREAKING: Powering Past Coal Alliance Urges Faster Phaseout While Co-Founders Allow New Coal Mines
      BREAKING: Powering Past Coal Alliance Urges Faster Phaseout While Co-Founders Allow New Coal Mines
      March 3, 2021
    • Windsor, Ontario Courts Investor for $2-Billion Battery Manufacturing Plant
      Windsor, Ontario Courts Investor for $2-Billion Battery Manufacturing Plant
      March 3, 2021
    • Seven in 10 Canadian Car Shoppers Plan to Go Electric
      Seven in 10 Canadian Car Shoppers Plan to Go Electric
      March 3, 2021
    • Fracked U.S. Gas the Main Culprit as Toronto GHG Emissions Rise 7% in 2018
      Fracked U.S. Gas the Main Culprit as Toronto GHG Emissions Rise 7% in 2018
      March 3, 2021
    • Canadian Environmental Justice Bill Set for Commons Debate [Petition]
      Canadian Environmental Justice Bill Set for Commons Debate [Petition]
      March 3, 2021

    News Feed

    Top News

    • Ex-Solar Researcher Named CEO of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
      March 2, 2021
    • Oil by Rail Rises on Keystone XL Cancellation
      March 2, 2021

    Read More

    Carbon-Free Transition

    • Iraq Plans 750 MW of New Solar Capacity
      March 2, 2021
    • Iberdola Puts More than €1 Billion into Spain’s First ‘Industrial-Scale’ Offshore Wind Farm
      March 2, 2021

    Read More

    Canada

    • Ex-Solar Researcher Named CEO of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
      March 2, 2021
    • The Tyee’s Nikiforuk Scorches ‘Pharoah’ Horgan’s $16-Billion Hydropower Monument
      March 2, 2021

    Read More

    U.S.

    • Puerto Rico Looks for 1 GW Renewables, 500 MW Storage
      March 2, 2021
    • Appeals Court Refuses to Hear Landmark Youth Climate Case
      March 2, 2021

    Read More

    International

    • German Economic Ministry Sees Departure from Gas Heat Starting Soon
      March 2, 2021
    • East German Union, Grid Operator Launch Plan for Climate-Friendly Industry
      March 2, 2021

    Read More

    • About the Energy Mix
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy and Copyright
    Copyright 2020 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.