B.C. HOLDS FIRST CARBON-NEUTRAL WCI MEETING
VANCOUVER – This month’s meeting of Western Climate Initiative partners will be the first to be carbon neutral, John Yap, Minister of State for Climate Action announced today.
“The Western Climate Initiative is a North American leader in the fight against climate change,” said Yap. “As a key member of the WCI, we want to continue to take important steps on the carbon front like offsetting the eight tonnes of carbon from these meetings to show our continued commitment to being a carbon neutral government.”
The meetings, which are being held in Vancouver on March 2-3, bring together the eleven WCI partners from across Canada and the United States. The carbon output from travel for the meetings will be neutralized through purchasing offsets from the Pacific Carbon Trust by the provincial government.
“With B.C. playing a leadership role within the WCI, it made sense for Pacific Carbon Trust to offset carbon emissions related to the meeting,” said Pacific Carbon Trust CEO Scott MacDonald. “We’re pleased to be part of this important process that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help build a strong green economy in B.C.”
The WCI continues to finalize details on a cap-and-trade program that is slated to begin January 1, 2012. Alongside complementary policies, the cap-and-trade program will help to achieve the WCI regional goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 per cent below 2005 levels.
