Last month, Premier John Horgan launched a six-week consultation with British Columbians to help shape the province’s economic recovery plan. Prism shared our thoughts as a member of the Catalyst business coalition.

On behalf of Prism, our President, Robert Greenwald, suggested that municipalities are a critical component on the path to a more resilient, lower-carbon economy. Within these municipalities, a program to fund low carbon, deep retrofits to arenas would be a significant opportunity for impact, as they account for approximately 40% of a municipality’s operational greenhouse gas emissions.

More broadly, the incentives for schools, municipalities, government and even advanced education are not nearly enough to offset the costs of the low carbon electrification (LCE) work needed to make significant GHG reductions. Hospitals have more viable projects due to their extended operating hours (incentives are based on GHG reductions, which depend on operating hours). However, CleanBC funding is limited for sites with shorter operating hours.   

Furthermore, incentives need to increase to make a difference in the commercial sector.  Although programs already exist, the dollar amount per tonne needs to increase to make it viable for participants.

Resources to learn more

Globally, there is an abundance of resources available regarding opportunities for a green recovery.  As it relates to the energy efficiency sector, the following five stand out:

  1. 5 green infrastructure projects engineers recommend to boost COVID-19 economic recovery (electrical vehicle charging and energy efficiency homes) 
  2. Financing renewable energy projects
  3. DSM programs must react to new realities and build for new conditions
  4. The Sustainable Recovery Plan which considers “cost-effective approaches, the circumstances of individual countries,existing pipelines of energy projects, and current market conditions
  5. “Establishing a revolving loan facility of $100 billion for city climate action plan implementation across Canada would provide the level of capital required.””