The BC Provincial Gov’t’s Climate Leadership Team has published their report, dated Oct 31, HERE.
A summary is HERE.
In a challenge to climate change deniers everywhere, the preamble (“Vision and Context”) contains this:
The costs of inaction are real. British Columbia, in common with the rest of the North America, is already experiencing a dramatic increase in the severity and frequency of violent storms. The Canadian insurance industry warns that the cost of extreme weather events is skyrocketing, costing Canadians over $3.2 billion dollars last year alone. By taking decisive action now to reduce our carbon pollution and stimulate innovation B.C. will be sending consistent, credible long term policy signals to the marketplace, protecting our economy and our health, and working to ensure a stable climate.
The good news is that numerous studies have now shown us that reducing emissions can be done while maintaining economic growth and in fact, can be cheaper in the long term than delaying action to address climate change.
The 32 recommendations are scattered throughout the report.
In particular, the Transportation section focuses completely on motor vehicles, with no mention of transit.
However, the report does recommend using incremental carbon tax revenue to support local projects such as transit and cycling infrastructure. It also mentions improving transit access, reliability and frequency.
I like the bit about reducing tax. ‘Specially after our Justin just said he was going to give away two and a half billion dollars of our money. That means over $300 million from British Columbians.
The increased regulations for the building code cause higher home prices.
Eric wrote “The increased regulations for the building code cause higher home prices.” That’s one way of looking at it. The other is that improved building code will lower operating costs and carbon “taxes” over many decades so overall costs are lowered. What we need is a way for energy providers, mortgage providers and house builders to get together to lower the “price” by having the purchaser pay the estimated higher energy costs (including carbon “tax”) and having that amount split between the energy provider and the mortgage holder until the extra cost due to the improved building code is paid back. Then the house owner is in the happy position of paying way less for energy. Win-win all around.
That’s the way it works now. The mortgage is based on the cost of property. If there happen to be extra costs due to expensive sustainable technologies with long-term financial benefits anticipated, then naturally the initial cost will be higher than otherwise. Under this scenario we should all buy a Tesla.
Our complex considered solar collectors on some flat roofs. The structural work and permits, the plumbing, etc., gave an estimate of payback of cost in about 40 years. Some of us are a few years from retirement, so we gave it a pass and saved the money because we’d be dead before it made any sense. Particularly consinsidering the problems of chemical leaking and the added expense likely for further repair, or perhaps replacement, that one highly prominent installation in Vancouver is experiencing.
The problem is that your points do not factor in externalities of pollution to society. Pollution causes cancer, heart disease, asthma and many other things that costs everyone in taxes. A car dependent property also causes everyone else’s property taxes to raise because it causes more car traffic and more roads to be maintained which is paid for by property taxes. The cost of these externalities are born by society and you pay for them every time someone else buys a house like that. That’s why we need better regulations, more carbon taxes, and road pricing to discourage those purchases and reduce the size of government.
See even a conservative can get on board!
http://globalnews.ca/news/2366032/climate-change-a-low-priority-for-most-canadians-poll/
Unless it’s one of those polls where you can get points and win things.