As an organization focused on driving solutions to the climate crisis, The Houssian Foundation’s partnership with Clean Energy Canada exemplifies the value of working within existing structures to shape climate and energy policy with ideas and collaboration across sectors.
Clean Energy Canada’s impact can be seen in the following three critical areas.
Clean Energy Canada helped to inspire the new B.C. government’s mandate letters and a key commitment is the development of a “climate aligned energy framework.” This framework will integrate energy planning, climate action, and economic strategy across the province. Clean Energy Canada is positioned to play a key role in working to align stakeholders to build consensus around this framework over the next 18 months.
Work is underway to update the B.C. Zero-Emission Vehicles Act with more ambitious targets (26% by 2026, 90% by 2030, and 100% by 2035). B.C. now has one of the highest rates of zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) uptake in North America, with an accompanying rapid increase in the build-out of charging infrastructure. B.C. is a Canadian leader on this file, and Clean Energy Canada has played an ongoing role in both provincial implementation efforts, as well as in getting the federal government to announce and develop a draft regulation for a national sales target for ZEVs that is expected to be finalized this year.
The largest opportunity for future progress on the electrification of transportation in B.C. now lies in addressing medium- and heavy-duty (MHDV) road transport, which contributes 33% of B.C.’s total transport emissions. During 2022, Clean Energy Canada invested in the capacity needed to take on this complicated issue.
There has been meaningful and positive progress across a range of sectors over the past two years. However, moving from announcements to policy development and implementation requires continuous engagement with governments and stakeholders while building the evidence to ensure that these policies will be durable over time as governments change.
At the same time, we must work continuously to keep these issues top of mind in the media. 2022 was Clean Energy Canada’s second-best media year to date: they achieved 4,630 media mentions in outlets across the country.