About Us
We are a non-partisan volunteer organization comprised of Kelowna based organizations and individual citizens deeply concerned about climate change.
We welcome all members of our community to join us in urging Kelowna City Council to work collaboratively to elevate climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.
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Clean BC has set a target of a 16% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the 2007 baseline by 2025 and a 40% reduction by 2030.
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The Government of Canada has committed to a 40-45% reduction by 2030.
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Our most recent (2018) GHG emissions report indicates that the City of Kelowna is headed in the wrong direction with emissions up 3.8% over 2007 levels
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We have less than 8 years to meet this goal: every community – its citizens and its local government must do its part.
Green Okanagan (a community for sustainable living) and the Kelowna Climate Coalition - KCC (an organization concerned with municipal policy) have come together with a renewed commitment to encourage our community to take meaningful action on climate change. We acknowledge the overwhelming scientific evidence that climate change is a major threat to the residents of Kelowna and the land we live on. 2023 has been the worst forest fire year on record for Canada. Much of BC is under level 4 or 5 drought. In 2021 British Columbia saw a year of fires, floods, and a deadly heat dome – much of the world had similar extreme weather experiences in 2021 and 2022.
KCC has a shared interest in creating the best possible future for our community. Holding our planet to 1.5 degrees Celsius warming will be difficult. More than 2 degrees is extremely risky, causes unaffordable impacts, requires costly adaptation, is harmful to the health and welfare of our citizens, and imperils our supply of food and water. A stable climate is needed for the business and economic activity that our community and families rely upon.
What We Do
Many Canadians are unsure what can be done to mitigate climate change but in fact there are important that can be taken at both the personal and policy level. On a personal level it’s all about taking an honest look at how we live day to day and making efforts to live more sustainably. Green Okanagan (GO) developed a wealth of information when it comes to sustainable living and that knowledge is right here under our Sustainable Living page.
As a community, changing policy is probably the most important step we can take. The most accessible option we in Kelowna have to impact policy is at the municipal level. Municipal policy counts.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities states that “municipal governments have direct or indirect control over approximately 44 per cent of GHG emissions in Canada. The most recent IPCC report calls municipalities to act. Our goal is to motivate the City of Kelowna to take meaningful action on climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The best way to focus the city on these goals is for Kelowna to declare a Climate Emergency.
“Cities and other urban areas offer significant opportunities for emissions reductions …through creating compact, walkable cities, electrification of transport in combination with … enhanced carbon uptake and storage using nature.” (IPCC)
