British Columbians need to bite the bullet and get used to paying more for gas and energy if they are serious about combating the negative effects of global climate change, argues a terse new report released by SFU yesterday.
Billed as a plainspoken effort to “encourage a broader dialogue” on environmental policy in the province, the 14-page findings of SFU’s Adaptation to Climate Change Team recommends that the B.C. government pursue an aggressive strategy of “guiding human behaviour towards environmental objectives” through taxes, regulation and innovation.
“The future will belong to the jurisdiction prepared to meet these challenges,” said Bruce Sampson, the report’s author, warning that though the current B.C. government had made great strides, “we need to go deeper, further and faster.”
Leading the report’s litany of recommendations is a call for a higher carbon tax, both to discourage excessive car use and fund energy innovation, and a demand that B.C. Hydro move to sell its electricity at “more accurate” market rates.
The report also calls for the founding of a “national centre for sustainable energy solutions,” something Sampson believes is long overdue.
“We’ve already spent trillions bailing out the financial system,” he said. “Surely we can come up with the money we need to save the planet.”
