The B.C. auditor-general is examining the controversial carbon
trading system the provincial government has used to declare its public
sector carbon neutral. The audit will determine whether the B.C.
government has achieved that goal, and also determine whether the
greenhouse gas reductions (called carbon offsets) the province purchased
to become carbon neutral were “credible,” according to the
auditor-general’s website. Under the province’s rules, carbon
offsets are only “credible” if the greenhouse gas reduction projects
would not have gone ahead without the cash injection from the province. Kate
Jobling, spokeswoman for the office of the auditor-general, said the
office could not comment on the audit because it is in progress, even to
say when the carbon-neutral audit had started and when it is expected
to be completed. The audit will also determine whether the
province is taking enough action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and
whether it is properly evaluating its efforts and reporting them. The
province declared the public sector carbon neutral in 2010 and 2011, meaning theoretically that public institutions have driven their
greenhouse gas emissions to zero. Hospitals, universities and
schools atone for the sin of carbon emission by paying $25 per tonne of
greenhouse gas produced into the Pacific Carbon Trust, a Crown
corporation. The money collected by the trust was used to fund
greenhouse gas reduction projects at private-sector pulp mills,
sawmills, gas drilling rigs, hotels and greenhouses. In this way,
the provincial government has said reduction projects in the private
sector “offset” the emissions in B.C.’s public sector. The B.C.
Liberal government has faced criticism from the B.C. School Trustees
Association and other public-sector organizations over this transfer of
public money to the private sector via the Pacific Carbon Trust. The
government reacted to the criticism by announcing in April the $5
million paid annually by schools to offset their carbon emissions will
go back to the schools in an energy-efficiency capital fund. No such move has been made for universities or hospitals.
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