Vancouver — With wildfires, floods, and climate disasters costing British Columbia billions every year, a new report makes the case for a bold solution: make the fossil fuel companies most responsible for the climate crisis pay their fair share to deal with the damages.
Released today, “How to Make Polluters Pay: Legislating a Climate Recovery Fund for British Columbia” shows how B.C. can become the first province in Canada to pass a law that forces major oil, gas, and coal companies to help cover the skyrocketing costs of rebuilding communities and protecting people from climate damage.
“When the BC NDP cancelled the carbon tax earlier this year, they promised to ensure that big polluters would pay their fair share of the costs of dealing with the climate crisis. This report shows how they can do that,” said Charles Latimer, climate campaigner with Greenpeace Canada based in B.C.
British Columbia. already has a strong track record for holding harmful industries accountable, leading Canada in tobacco and opioid cost recovery laws that made big companies pay back public costs. The report shows that similar legal tools can apply to climate polluters, following the lead of US states like Vermont and New York which have passed “climate superfund” laws in the past year (climate cost recovery legislation has also been introduced in seven other states including California and Washington).
Each year B.C. communities and First Nations spend billions fighting fires, repairing flood damage, and preparing for extreme weather. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry has made record profits while avoiding responsibility for the climate harms they caused, harms that scientists and the companies themselves have known about for decades.
“No impacted community should have to go through recovery alone, and rebuilding efforts must be done with resilience in mind. Climate Change impact prevention, recovery and rebuilding costs must be shared with polluters, who are creating the risk, reaping the benefits but are not paying a fair share.” – retired Chief Patrick Michell, Kanaka Bar.
Charles Latimer continued: “British Columbia has the legal tools and a clear precedent to defend this kind of law, and the cost of doing nothing is too high to ignore. ”
The proposed Climate Cost Recovery Act would:
- Charge large fossil fuel companies (like Shell, BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil) based on their share of historic climate pollution.
- Use those funds for rebuilding homes, protecting people’s health, wildfire prevention and climate resilience.
- Make sure local governments and Indigenous communities get the support they need to adapt and recover — without passing the burden to taxpayers alone.
Ends
For more information, contact:
Patou Oumarou
Campaign Communications Officer | Greenpeace Canada
+1 (418) 431-0263 | [email protected]
