B.C. lags behind provinces on climate change actions: Pembina Institute

VICTORIA — The Pembina Institute says British Columbia is a climate- change laggard despite its eight-year-old carbon tax on fossil fuels.

The environmental think tank says in a report that harmful greenhouse gas emissions are projected to rise in B.C., while they drop in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.

Pembina spokeswoman Josha MacNab says B.C.’s carbon tax was a bold and leading climate-change fighting initiative in 2008, but it’s been frozen for the past four years.

The province charges $30 a tonne on carbon emissions, adding up to about seven cents on a litre on gas, for example.