Climate plan will change B.C. building code

December 14, 2018

Changes to the British Columbia building code and energy-saving incentives for homeowners are being cued up after the B.C. government unveiled its new climate change and energy plan on December 5.
Among the highlights of the plan:

• 16,000 homes are to be retrofitted by 2030 to improve energy efficiency—including incentives for homeowners to buy electric heat pumps.
• All natural gas used for home heating will eventually have a 15 per cent “renewable” fuel content requirement—gas must come from landfills and other green sources, not from the giant natural gas fields of northern British Columbia.
• The provincial building code will be changed to require that all new homes are “net-zero” in terms of greenhouse gas emissions by 2032.
• B.C.'s price on carbon will go up $5 per year until 2021 in an effort to encourage lower emission alternatives; it has already increased to $35 per tonne in 2018.