Whereas many local governments have adopted Community Energy and Emissions Plans with policies sufficient to locally achieve the deep GHG reductions needed to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures, and have amply demonstrated commitment to climate action through advancing low-carbon or zero-carbon initiatives and implementing advanced flood protection, drainage, and diking projects, as applicable; And whereas it is increasingly evident that oil and gas producers are seeking to indefinitely extend the production and consumption of fossil fuels rather than allow a transition to low or zero GHG energy sources, in significant part through the expanded use of subsidies, thereby diverting needed resources from energy efficiency, renewable energy and low-GHG electrification; And whereas an exclusive focus by senior governments on setting limits on GHG emissions rather than on the fossil fuels producing these emissions now threatens to undermine climate action at the local level: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM ask the Province to expeditiously follow through on its CleanBC commitment to enact a GHG emissions cap for natural gas utilities, and to support the objectives of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty initiative, to: 1 end new exploration and production, including an end to the use of subsidies to artificially increase the supply of, and demand for, fossil fuels; 2 set limits directly on fossil fuel production so as to set out a measured and predictable phase out of existing stockpiles and production of fossil fuels; and 3 accelerate a just and equitable transition to support workers and communities dependent on fossil fuels.
