Planning for climate action in British Columbia, Canada: Putting agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation on local government agendas

Significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions from all sectors of human enterprise are necessary to avoid further effects and reduce the current effects of climate change. Agriculture and the global food system are estimated to contribute to one-third of all anthropogenic GHGs. In British Columbia, Canada, mandated GHG reduction targets and voluntary climate action programs are challenging local governments to include emission reduction targets, policies, and actions within official planning documents. At this early stage of GHG reductions, local government attention does not yet include agriculture but is directed toward the transportation, buildings, and waste management sectors. Given agriculture’s contribution to GHG emissions and local government’s engagement with GHG mitigation and food system planning, it seems reasonable to anticipate that over time, local governments should and will engage increasingly in reducing GHGs from agriculture. With the goal of advancing agriculture GHG mitigation by local governments, this paper reviews the jurisdictional powers governing agriculture and climate change within British Columbia. It examines how local governments can support mitigation within the sector through their roles in planning, policy, programming, and public engagement, and identifies potential research agenda items.


Introduction
Climate change poses a significant challenge to humanity and will require definitive action by society for profound, transformative change.Significant reductions of greenhouse (GHG) emissions in every sector, including agriculture and the agri-food system as a whole, are necessary and will require strategic coordination and planning.Mitigation and adaptation are the two main climate change response options outlined by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).Mitigation of climate change involves reducing GHG emissions entering the atmosphere and removing atmospheric GHGs through sinks (such as carbon sequestration).Adaptation refers to building resistance (the ability to withstand the impact of a disturbance) and resilience (the ability to recover from disturbance) within agro-ecosystems, communities, and governance frameworks, to prepare for climatic change and its impacts.Although adaptation within the agriculture sector is vital, the focus of this paper is on GHG mitigation.
Greenhouse gas emissions from the global food system are estimated to contribute to one-third of all anthropogenic (human generated) emissions (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2007; Scialabba & Muller-Lindenlauf, 2010).While GHG emissions reductions are necessary in all stages of the food system (agriculture, processing, packaging, transportation, retailing, catering and consumption, home preparation, and waste management), particular attention to agriculture is necessary in order to ensure food security, economic vitality, and sustainable communities congruently.Agriculture (the cultivation and production of food, fuel, and fiber) contributes between 10% and 25% of annual GHG emissions, mainly through methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide emissions from land-use changes, agricultural land management, and farming practices (Scialabba & Muller-Lindenlauf, 2010;Smith et al., 2008).
In British Columbia (B.C.), Canada, provincial climate policies mandate that local governments achieve significant GHG reduction targets within their operations.The targets seek to reduce GHG emissions to 33% below 2007 levels by 2020 and to 80% below 2007 levels by 2050.As part of these regulations, local governments are required to include GHG reduction targets, policies, and actions in their two main planning frameworks: Regional Growth Strategies (RGSs) (in effect since 31 May 2011) and Official Community Plans (OCPs) (in effect since 31 May 2010).At this early stage of being required to consider GHG reductions in the regional and community plans, local government's attention to emissions reductions is not yet directed towards agriculture, but is focused on sectors where the greatest reductions are thought to exist, namely buildings, transportation, and waste, which are under their operational authorities.
Historically, local governments in B.C. have been instrumental in implementing sustainable practices within local contexts (Nowlan, Rolfe, & Grant, 2001).With this track record, it is reasonable to anticipate that over time, local initiatives will be designed to meet climate change mitigation and adaptation challenges within the local agricultural sector.For example, there is a growing engagement by local governments in regional food system planning, which has been supported by a partnership involving federal, provincial, and local governments (City of Vancouver, 2011;Metro Vancouver, 2011).This partnership is being extended to cover climate change themes (British Columbia Healthy Communities, 2011).With these types of initiatives, along with new planning legislation, and as more information is available on ways to reduce agriculture GHG emissions, local governments will be in the position to play a role in reducing agriculture and food production emissions.
Although the points noted above hold promise for local government involvement in GHG mitigation of agriculture, they also highlight the diversity of interests and their associated complexity.It is important to step back and begin to outline a stepby-step strategy for defining and achieving effective results.One of the first steps in mitigation planning commonly recommended is to identify and understand all existing policies and programs that influence a sector's ability to implement change and take action to reduce emissions (British Columbia Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development, 2010).For agriculture, this is a complicated task that requires assessing the multilevel jurisdictional authority of national, provincial, and local levels of government, as well as the laws, policies, and programs administered by each.
Although local governments in B.C. are increasingly engaged in both GHG emissions reduction planning and food system planning, the two planning strategies remain disconnected, and as a result, local-level GHG mitigation within the agriculture sector is not being properly addressed.With the goal of raising awareness of the necessity for agriculture mitigation planning by local governments and to increase knowledge of those engaged in local/regional food system planning, we provide an overview of the jurisdictional powers governing agriculture and climate change within British Columbia and provide detailed attention to the role that local governments can have in creating local initiatives designed to mitigate GHGs within the province's agricultural sector.

Jurisdictional Powers Governing Agriculture and Climate Change
Addressing mitigation within the agriculture sector and creating effective strategies for climate action requires some knowledge about the jurisdictional powers of different levels of government (national, provincial, and local).Canada is a federation of provinces where the orders of government have distinct, but in some cases overlapping, jurisdictions (Curran, 2009).Both federal Parliament and provincial legislatures have the constitutional authority to make laws (Nowlan et al., 2001), but local governments (both regional and municipal) do not have standalone legal authority.Their powers are delegated to them through provincial regulations, such as the Local Government Act.Even if they have power to make many decisions that affect agriculture, this may be limited by their legislation or other federal and provincial enactments.Furthermore, local governments have discretionary authority with respect to the use of their powers.They can also choose whether to participate in federal and provincial initiatives.Having an understanding of the interplay among these considerations is imperative to designing an effective, locally based GHG emissions strategy and implementation programs for the agriculture and agri-food sector.

Federal and Provincial Agriculture Policy
Canada's constitutional arrangement puts jurisdiction and legislative authority over agriculture in the hands of the federal and provincial governments, both of which voice authority in realms of international trade, marketing, interprovincial coordination, and subsidy regulation, among others (Found, 1996).The five main federal governing agencies involved with agriculture in Canada include: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), Environment Canada, and Health Canada (Department of Justice, 2011).Agencies are responsible for particular services and for administering and enforcing particular acts and regulations (see table 1) (Fuller & Buckingham, 1999).At the federal level, we identified a total of 33 enactments that potentially affect agriculture and food production.
Within B.C., we identified 10 key provincial acts affecting agriculture (see

The Role of Local Governments in Mitigating GHGs Within Agriculture
Thought of as the level of government "closet to the people," local governments have historically played a key role in addressing sustainability issues within B.C. because of their role in land use planning, service delivery, policy, and regulation (Nowlan et al., 2001).Local government refers to the council of a municipality or the board of a regional district.The province of British Columbia has 151 municipalities within 27 larger regional districts (Nowlan et al., 2001) Local governments in B.C. are seeking ways to help agriculture within their areas, including planning for local and/or regional agri-food systems (Connell & Sturgeon, 2011;Smith, 1998).We suggest that mitigating GHGs within agriculture is an important area for local government attention.Thus in the remainder of this paper we review local governments' roles within the context of agriculture GHG mitigation in the areas of (1) planning, (2) policy, (3) program participation, facilitation, and support, and (4) public promotion.

Planning
Agriculture planning has a long history within British Columbia.In the 1970s and 1980s, planning activities were focused on preserving agricultural land, culminating in the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) Act and the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).In the 1990s, the province's planning focus shifted to improving farming practices.This shift resulted in amendments to the ALC Act and the Local Government Act and in the enactment of the Farm Practices Protection (Right to Farm) Act.In B.C., the three types of planning tools that have the greatest influence on land use and community design for agriculture are Regional Growth Strategies (RGSs), Official Community Plans (OCPs), and Agricultural Area Plans (AAPs).RGSs, which should directly reflect provincial planning goals, are developed by regional districts and must be agreed upon by constituent municipalities.The Local Government Act establishes authority for the RGS and states that the purpose of an RGS is to "promote human settlement that is socially, economically and environmentally healthy and makes efficient use of public facilities and services, land and other resources" (British Columbia Laws, 2011).RGSs typically cover a range of issues and set a 20-year vision for regional growth and development.
OCPs, which can be developed by both regional districts for unincorporated areas and municipalities for all or part of their jurisdiction, must be consistent with RGSs.  of Vancouver, 2011).However, while local government planning efforts are increasingly recognizing the importance of advancing sustainable food systems, few plans deal directly with climate change, production agriculture, and GHG mitigation in an integrated way.Nevertheless, it seems reasonable to anticipate that over time local governments will increasingly engage in reducing agriculture and food system GHG emissions.
Agricultural planning at the local level is expected to confer numerous benefits, which include reducing urban/rural conflict through stakeholder engagement; improving local farming economic activity; supporting consistency within federal and provincial policies; stimulating new thinking and changing attitudes of stakeholders involved with the planning process; enabling agricultural planning integration into larger community plans; providing support language and knowledge to assist local government in making land use decisions; and creating a methodology for dealing with issues that arise (Connell & Sturgeon, 2011;Nowlan et al., 2001).All the benefits of agricultural planning highlight the support and demonstrate the need for GHG mitigation planning within the sector at the local and/or regional level.
In B.C., provincial policies mandating municipalities to include GHG reduction targets and actions within their planning frameworks provide impetus for planners to bring forward innovative and effective strategies.

Policy
From the legal perspective, mitigating GHG emissions from agriculture is a challenge due to the number of interconnected policies and regulations that directly address or indirectly influence agriculture and climate change actions.Furthermore, a number of nonclimate and nonagriculture policies (e.g., international free trade agreements, trade barriers, energy policies, and environmental policies) also affect emission reductions activity (Smith et al., 2007)

Public Promotion and Stakeholder Coordination
Local government engagement with the public, farmers, communities, industry, and the provincial and federal government enables it to foster dialogues, partnerships, and capacity-building opportunities necessary for climate change mitigation action within agriculture.For example, hosting public gatherings or events that support low GHG agriculture or building links between urban food activists and commercial producers are other actions that local governments can take toward climate action.

Discussion and Conclusion
Climate change represents a significant challenge, as it will undoubtedly require profound, transformational change in how we live on Earth and conduct the human enterprise, including food production.Ultimately, local initiatives designed to meet regional mitigation challenges are necessary for the agriculture sector in B.C. as elsewhere.
Local governments involvement with sustainability, GHG emissions reductions, and local/regional agri-food systems development in conjunction with their roles in planning, policy, program development, and stakeholder engagement suggest they have an important, even critical, role to play in mitigating GHGs in agriculture.However, they cannot undertake this task alone, because mitigation actions are closely linked to provincial, federal, and international policies and programs.In addition to navigating the complex policy framework that affects agriculture, local governments must accept the challenge of identifying how to mitigate GHGs in agriculture despite the uncertainties associated with the scientific information (see Moreau et al. 2011  Without baseline data from which prioritized actions can be made, local governments cannot properly engage the agriculture sector to take action or garner the public support that is important to do so.

Identification of Key Policies:
A number of policies and regulations affecting agriculture and climate change were identified in table 1.This does not include other policies that may influence agriculture production.A critical step toward implementing low GHG agriculture policies is to thoroughly evaluate all key policies and to identify levers, tools, synergies, impediments, conflicts, and contradictions between them.Additional review of the policy interface between agriculture, climate change, food security, trade, economics, and the environment is highly recommended.The goal would be to identify policies having the greatest influence over agriculture and to explore how agriculture GHG mitigation can support other policy goals (e.g., improving water and air quality, enhancing biodiversity, diversifying operations, enhancing local economics, and creating jobs).
Stakeholder Participation in Improving Regulation: A quagmire of policies and regulations exist that make it challenging to navigate climate action for agriculture.
We recommend an open dialogue between those who create the regulations and those most directly affected by them in order to explore the question "how can regulations create opportunities to make the transition to low GHG agriculture possible?"In this way, the breadth of those concerned and affected can identify requisite policy adjustment and innovations.
Local Governments Need Provincial Support for Innovative Practices: Since local governments are required to establish GHG reduction targets in their planning documents, and must use their regulatory and approval authorities to achieve those targets, they can play a far-reaching role in climate action.However, they will lack resources and may need additional tools to properly influence GHG mitigation and adaptation within production agriculture.Therefore, it is essential that the province support innovative and transformational efforts made by their local governments.Programs like the Environmental Farm Plan enable producers to apply for economic incentives to implement beneficial management practices, many of which support climate change mitigation and adaptation (B.C.Ministry of Agriculture, 2011a).Similar programs implemented and promoted by local governments may assist production agriculture with implementing GHG mitigation actions.

Conclusions
Ultimately, anthropogenically induced climate change is a manifestation of how we, as individuals, live our lives and how our communities are organized and function.Planning for and implementing GHG mitigation in agriculture requires knowledge and consideration of a seemingly overwhelming number and complexity of features that directly and indirectly influence production agriculture.But, just because the situation is complex and hence very challenging, we cannot ignore the very real and substantial role agriculture plays in atmospheric GHG levels, and therefore its importance in GHG mitigation strategies.

Table 1 .
Federal, Provincial, and Local Government Policies, Policy Tools and Programs Influencing Agriculture and Climate Change in British Columbia, Canada The main distinction between the convention and the protocol is that the former encouraged industrialized countries to stabilize GHG emissions, while the latter commits them to doing so.In 2011, Canada was the first country to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Accord.The Canadian government said the Kyoto protocol would not work because it did not include the United States and China, the world's two largest emitters.Furthermore, the government said it needed to avoid the $14 billion in penalties for not meeting its goals.The Canadian national GHG emissions estimates reported in the 2008 National Inventory Report (NIR) of 734 MtCO 2 e 1 were 33.9% above Canada's Kyoto Protocol target (563 MtCO 2 e/year for 2008-2012).
Note: CFIA = Canadian Food Inspection Agency; AAFC = Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada