Climate action: BY DOUG WALL
In June of this year, B.C. school districts will have to issue their first cheques to purchase carbon offsets from the Pacific Carbon Trust in order to comply with the carbon neutral mandate under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Target Act (GGRTA). As is the case with the Revenue Neutral Carbon Tax, one of the objectives of putting an appropriate price on carbon emissions is to encourage school districts and other public sector organizations (PSOs) to factor that cost into future investment and purchasing decisions. The problem with that, however, is that if there is little or no capital available to invest in emissions reductions, the intended behavioural change will not be realized. Hopefully, this will not be the case for long. In addition to the carbon neutral requirement for PSOs, the GGRTA also dictates that by 2020, total emissions in the province (public and private) must be reduced by 33 per cent below 2007 levels (and further reductions beyond that). In order to achieve these province-wide reductions, the government is going to have to require that the private sector make significant investments in emissions reductions, and enforce these reduction requirements through regulation. One would hope and expect that the government will lead by example and make similar investments to reduce their own actual emissions by an amount that approximates the GGRTA target. I believe that the government understands that merely declaring to be carbon neutral is unlikely to be a significant enough demonstration of leadership in the eyes of the private sector and the general public, especially when the carbon-neutral mandate actually enhances the business case for investing in actual emissions reductions.
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18 Ops Talk • Spring 2011
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School facilities represent the single-largest component of the provincial government building inventory, and by far the largest opportunity for reducing actual emissions. Unfortunately, however, B.C. school districts have very little, if any, access to capital with which to invest in emissions reduction initiatives. Borrowing against avoided utility costs is prohibited by the debt cap under which the Ministry must operate. AFG funding is already insufficient to deal with growing deferred renewal backlogs, address curricular program renovations and adhere to access and safety codes without having to also rely on it for any significant emissions reduction investments. This will likely be borne out by the results of the ongoing Capital Asset Management System (CAMS) analysis. There is very likely at least $300-million worth of investments in comprehensive emissions reduction measures in B.C.’s K-12 facilities that could be justified as being a better investment (i.e., a better use of taxpayer dollars) than continuing to pay escalating utility and carbon offset costs over the long term. One of the main reasons for this is that most of the upgrades involve replacing aging, inefficient equipment now (boilers, for example), thus avoiding a future capital expense when the equipment would have to have been replaced regardless. Each facility essentially has only one chance to implement a comprehensive emissions reduction project because any measures that are not implemented are unlikely to ever be implemented on a standalone basis. The positive business case associated with these upgrades should warrant their being given a high priority within the capital budgeting process going forward, especially if they help the government demonstrate leadership on climate action. The need to manage the ratio of Total Public Debt to GDP is acknowledged but these projects need to be given a much higher priority within the capital funding envelope. Previous funding mechanisms, including the now-completed PSECA program, were insufficient in scale and did not have the requisite emphasis on comprehensiveness (and GHG emissions) for these types of investments. It is recognized that low-visibility retrofits inside existing buildings are not ideal investments for the purposes of public announcements and ribbon-cutting ceremonies. Surely, however, the business case and job creation attributes of these investments, combined with the positive impact they will have on facility renewal and the learning
