The B.C. government will ensure the province remains the third-lowest greenhouse gas producer per person in Canada no matter what happens with the Kyoto climate change treaty, says the head of B.C.'s climate-change plan.

Because it generates most of its electricity from hydroelectric power, B.C. now has the third-lowest greenhouse gas emissions per capita among provinces.

In contrast, Alberta, which produces more than half its electricity from coal-fired plants and is expanding the oilsands, has the highest per-capita emissions.

B.C.'s climate-change plan is long term, "and the target it sets is to remain third-best per-capita greenhouse gas emitter relative to other provinces," says Lee Thiessen, climate-change manager in B.C.'s Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection. "It doesn't depend on Kyoto in any fashion."

The plan also provides certainty for industry in B.C. by saying that whatever regulations Ottawa implements under a national Kyoto plan, "the B.C. government will work in support of industry in meeting those requirements," Thiessen said.

But with the Kyoto accord set to become a binding international treaty on Feb. 16, environmental groups contend that B.C.'s climate-change plan is one of the worst in the country in terms of its potential to reduce emissions.

Environmental groups give credit to BC Hydro, which generates by far the largest amount of electricity in the province, for being a national leader in conserving energy and reducing emissions.

However, the B.C. government's plan sets no overall emission-reduction target for the province, unlike plans by Ontario, Quebec and even the anti-Kyoto Alberta government, says Dale Marshall, policy analyst with the David Suzuki Foundation.

"You can't have a climate-change plan without a target," says Marshall, who calls B.C.'s plan simply "a communications piece ... It's just an inventory of existing measures that relate to energy or greenhouse gas emissions in any way."

Marshall says the plan fails to set even voluntary targets to reduce greenhouse gases in areas where emissions are growing the fastest, including B.C.'s oil and gas sector, personal transportation and electricity generation.

In contrast, the oil and gas industry in Alberta has voluntarily and significantly cut oilfield gas flaring and venting emissions in the neighbouring province, he notes.

The B.C. government and B.C. Oil and Gas Commission don't have to wait for federal Kyoto rules to take similar measures, he adds. "It's entirely possible for them to put into place regulations that decrease those emissions."

B.C.'s plan - unlike Alberta's - contains no mandatory requirement for large industrial plants emitting more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year to report these emissions to the province.

Thiessen, however, says greenhouse gases from BC Hydro's natural-gas-fired power plants, mining smelters owned by Alcan Inc. and Teck Cominco Ltd., and other large industrial sources will be subject to federal Kyoto regulations, so there's no sense for the province to duplicate those rules.

"The value of this (climate-change plan) is that it does provide a profile and it leverages increased action, even if some of these actions have been under way," he says.

Under the plan, the province is considering establishing a standard to make government buildings more energy efficient, and may set targets for government ministries to acquire more fuel-efficient vehicles.

In the forest sector, the province has undertaken research to determine how much ability to store carbon in trees and keep it out of the atmosphere has been lost due to the mountain pine beetle outbreak devastating B.C.'s lodgepole pine forests.

The government is also working with other organizations, industries and communities on predicting the impacts of climate change on such things as water availability and ocean storm surges off the West Coast, Thiessen says.

But Marshall argues that many actions in the plan will do nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and some actions - such as building more highways - "will actually increase emissions."

The one bright spot, he says, is BC Hydro, which is helping to conserve energy and reduce emissions through its Power Smart "demand-side management" or energy-conservation program.

Although BC Hydro's electricity generation (mostly from gas-fired power plants) emitted 1.16 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2003, the Crown corporation also avoided about one million tonnes of emissions by reducing its customers' power consumption through Power Smart.

Tim Lesiuk, senior environmental co-ordinator of climate-change management for BC Hydro, says Power Smart works with industrial, commercial and residential power consumers "to reduce existing power demand and also help reduce future demand."

For example, Hydro helps pay the costs of building generators fuelled by wood waste at sawmills in the province. These biomass plants enable mills to produce their own electricity, reduce emissions and, in many cases, sell surplus power to the provincial grid.

BC Hydro's studies show it's cheaper to help pay for the capital costs of such projects than it is for the corporation to find and generate its own new electricity sources, Thiessen says.

In another Power Smart project, BC Hydro partnered with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. to upgrade aging lighting at the Granville Island Public Market. The upgrade is saving the market about 123,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year - worth about $6,700 in reduced energy costs annually.

A study by BC Hydro shows that by 2016, its customers could reduce their electricity consumption by 840 megawatts, or enough to supply power to 580,000 homes. Customers would also save $255 million per year - including $175 million annually for commercial buildings and industrial plants - in energy bills.

In addition, Thiessen says, BC Hydro has already surpassed its voluntary target of acquiring 10 per cent of its new electricity generation through to 2010 from independently certifiable green-energy sources, such as wind and solar power and low-impact small hydro.

In 2003, Hydro purchased almost 1,800 gigawatt-hours of new electricity (enough for about 180,000 homes) from 16 new green-generating facilities to be built by independent power producers.

"In the last 10 years, we've made some significant progress in avoiding the growth in emissions (compared with) other jurisdictions that haven't had green energy and demand-side management," Thiessen says.

But Marshall points out that the B.C. government's 2002 energy plan includes building coal-fired power plants, something the province hasn't seen for generations.

"Moving towards coal-fired power won't reduce emissions," Marshall notes.