Premier tasks Climate Leadership Team with updating B.C.’s climate action plan

BURNABY, B.C. – B.C. Premier Christy Clark is rolling out what she calls Phase 2 of the province’s climate action plan.

Clark has announced the creation of a Climate Leadership Team tasked with updating the province’s efforts to combat climate change.

The team has until the end of November to submit recommendations on everything from meeting the province’s greenhouse-gas-emission targets to highlighting ways to collaborate with local governments on the climate-action front.

The move comes seven years after B.C. introduced a broad-based carbon tax.

The team will be chaired by MLA Mike Bernier and will include representatives from academia, local government, business, First Nations and the environmental community.

A finalized Climate Leadership Plan will be released early next year following a 30-day public consultation session in December 2015.

“Climate change is a problem that threatens to engulf the world and British Columbia is a very small contributor to the problem,” Clark told reporters on Tuesday.

“Nonetheless, we have a unique responsibility to be a leader in showing how it can be done.”