British Columbia’s GHG act put into effect

The Greenhouse gas industrial reporting and control act (GGIRCA) came into force in British Columbia on Friday, the province’s ministry of environment said. 

The new act, that puts an emissions cap on British Columbia’s LNG facilities making them “the cleanest in the world“, combines several pieces of existing greenhouse gas legislation into a single framework, the statement issued on Friday reads.

The act includes the ability to set a greenhouse gas emissions intensity benchmark for regulated industries, including LNG facilities.

“This benchmark can be met using flexible options that act as incentives to invest in emission reduction projects for natural gas and other sectors around the province. Options can include purchasing offsets or paying a set price per tonne of greenhouse gas emissions that would be dedicated to a technology fund,” stands in the statement.

Additionally, three regulations necessary to implement the act came into effect, namely, the greenhouse gas emission reporting regulations, the greenhouse gas emission administrative penalties and appeals regulation and the greenhouse gas emission control regulation.

The greenhouse gas emission reporting regulation replaces the existing industrial reporting regulation, and adds compliance reporting requirements, including specific requirements for LNG operations. Industrial operations will continue to report GHG emissions as they have since 2010, the ministry said.

Regulated operations, such as LNG projects will have the option of purchasing offsets from the market or funded units from the government, priced at CAD 25, to meet emission limits.

LNG World News Staff