B.C. climate news: B.C. puts up $3.3 million for Fraser Valley flood planning | Comox declares flooding state of emergency | Low snowpack for B.C.’s South Coast
Here’s all the latest local and international news concerning climate change for the week of Jan. 26 to Feb. 1, 2026.
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B.C. climate news: B.C. puts up $3.3 million for Fraser Valley flood planning | Comox declares flooding state of emergency | Low snowpack for B.C.’s South Coast Back to video
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In climate news this week:
• B.C. puts up $3.3 million for Fraser Valley flood planning
• Comox Valley declares flooding state of emergency
• Low snowpack for B.C.’s South Coast
• LNG Canada has been flaring up to 15 times more gas than expected: Narwhal report
Human activities like burning fossil fuels and farming livestock are the main drivers of climate change, according to the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change. This causes heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere, increasing the planet’s surface temperature.
The panel, which is made up of scientists from around the world, including researchers from B.C., has warned for decades that wildfires and severe weather, such as the province’s deadly heat dome and catastrophic flooding in 2021, would become more frequent and intense because of the climate emergency. It has issued a code red for humanity and warns the window to limit warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial times is closing.
According to NASA climate scientists, human activities have raised the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide content by 50 per cent in less than 200 years, and “there is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate.”
As of Jan. 5, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 427.49 parts per million, up slightly from 426.46 ppm the previous month, according to the latest available data from the NOAA measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory, a global atmosphere monitoring lab in Hawaii. The NOAA notes there has been a steady rise in CO2 from under 320 ppm in 1960.
Quick facts:
• The global average temperature in 2023 reached 1.48 C higher than the pre-industrial average, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. In 2024, it breached the 1.5 C threshold at 1.55 C.
• 2025 was the third warmest on record after 2024 and 2023, capping the 11th consecutive warmest years.
• Human activities have raised atmospheric concentrations of CO2 by nearly 49 per cent above pre-industrial levels starting in 1850.
• The world is not on track to meet the Paris Agreement target to keep global temperature from exceeding 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels, the upper limit to avoid the worst fallout from climate change including sea level rise, and more intense drought, heat waves and wildfires.
• UNEP’s 2025 Emissions Gap Report, released in early December, shows that even if countries meet emissions targets, global temperatures could still rise by 2.3 C to 2.5 C this century.
• In June 2025, global concentrations of carbon dioxide exceeded 430 parts per million, a record high.
• There is global scientific consensus that the climate is warming and that humans are the cause.
Latest News
The B.C. government is providing $3.3 million toward a comprehensive flood mitigation plan in the Abbotsford-Chilliwack area.
In an announcement this week, the B.C. Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Ministry said the money will support the work of the Sumas River watershed flood mitigation planning initiative. The group includes the Semá:th, Leq’á:mel and Máthxwi First Nations, the cities of Abbotsford and Chilliwack, and the provincial government.
The initiative was created following devastating flooding in the area in 2021 that damaged homes, farms and roads, and caused billions of dollars in damage across the province.
Last December, the area was hit again by flooding but less than in 2021.
Both times the flooding was triggered by intense rains from atmospheric rivers, huge plumes of moisture from tropical storms carried across the Pacific Ocean. Scientists expect atmospheric rivers to increase in severity and frequency because of climate change.
—Gordon Hoekstra
Comox Valley on Vancouver Island declares state of emergency over flooding
The Comox Valley Regional District has declared a state of local emergency and issued an evacuation order because of flooding in the area.
Residents of 10 properties along Stephen and Headquarters roads and the Maple Pool Campground have been told to leave while several other properties on Headquarters Road are on evacuation alert.
The regional district says a state of local emergency was declared Friday to support emergency response to rising waters, flooding and the risk to property.
An emergency operations centre has been opened at the Comox Valley Regional District. Flood response activities are occurring throughout the region, according to the district.
—Tiffany Crawford
Gregor Robertson walking a delicate tightrope over pipeline issue
Eight months into his term as federal housing minister, former Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson is walking a tightrope on policies being advanced by Prime Minister Mark Carney that he opposed while a municipal leader.
Chief among those is the deal that Carney signed with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith that includes language supportive of a new bitumen pipeline to B.C.’s North Coast.
As mayor, Robertson vocally opposed the expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline from the oil sands to its terminus in Burnaby, telling Bloomberg in 2018 that “we have to get off fossil fuels” and that oil and gas “represents such a tiny fraction of the overall economy and a job count.”
Now, the environmentalist is having to temper his comments when asked about the latest federal effort to diversify energy exports away from an volatile and threatening U.S. under President Donald Trump.
Speaking to Postmedia Monday, Robertson pointed out there is currently no private sector proponent for the project nor is there a defined route.
—Alec Lazenby
Low snowpack for B.C.’s South Coast
While skiers and snowboarders are basking in an epic snowfall in some parts of B.C., such as the Kootenays, the South Coast has had a dismal start to winter.
That’s despite the fact that a La Niña phenomenon typically brings a wetter-and-cooler winter to the region, with more snow on the North Shore mountains.
Meteorologists say B.C.’s South Coast has been hit with unusually warm temperatures, atmospheric rivers and a high-pressure ridge leading to record-low snowfall.
As of this week, the snowfall total in Vancouver is zero centimetres. According to the Weather Network, this season is on par with the 2014-2015 season, the only snowless winter on record at YVR.
Derek Lee, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said: “Any time we had some cooling, it was just mainly sunny or foggy in the last few days and no snow was actually reported at YVR for the last two months.”
The provincial snowpack report for the South Coast was 67 per cent below normal as of Jan. 1. On Vancouver Island the snowpack is 58 per cent below normal.
Last summer, the Pacific Ocean hit record temperatures. Berkeley Earth, an independent organization that provides environmental data and peer-reviewed scientific analysis, said northern Pacific temperatures were nearly 2.5 C warmer in August than the pre-industrial average, a significant and likely long-term change due to human-caused climate change.
Lee said warmer ocean temperatures means that there’s more water vapour for storms, which can affect B.C.’s winter weather.
—Tiffany Crawford
Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands are home to some of the critically endangered Garry oak ecosystems.
Only five per cent remains today after much has been lost to land development. These ecosystems continue to face threats including climate change, wildfires, invasive species and urban development.
Now a novel B.C. rare and culturally significant seed bank will try to preserve seeds from native plant species, with the goal of repopulating critical ecosystems in the event of disaster.
The plan to collect and preserve the seeds involves the Nupqu Native Plant Nursery, the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, University of British Columbia botanical gardens, and the Coastal Douglas Fir Conservation Partnership, administered by the B.C. Conservation Foundation.”
“A clear goal and direction came, and that was to protect the genetic and species diversity of B.C.’s native plants,” says Stephanie Woods, program manager with the Douglas Fir partnership.
—Local Journalism Initiative
In the fall of 2024, LNG Canada fired up its flare in Kitimat for the first time, burning off gas to test its systems. By December, company officials knew something was wrong.
Residents were also concerned, but had little explanation as 90-metre-high flames lit up the night sky and a deep roaring sound permeated the town.
More than a year later, complaints escalated enough that Kitimat District council sat down for a special meeting with Teresa Waddington, the deputy chief operating officer at LNG Canada. About an hour into the meeting, councillor Terry Marleau asked specifically about flare tips.
“We’re reviewing the flare tips design,” Waddington said. “We are looking long term at what else could we do other than just reduce flaring in order to make sure that we get to a better place.”
A couple of minutes later, Marleau leaned into the mic: “So, is there an issue with the flare stacks themselves?”
“It’s part of the learning curve of new equipment,” Waddington replied. “So on one hand, you know, great that we brought in a technology that gets such high levels of incineration, which results in less slippage of gas, which means you have lower (greenhouse gas emissions) overall, but on the same note, it’s not perfectly working.”
Just a few kilometres away from the nearest residential neighbourhood, LNG Canada had been feeding gas into its flaring system by a magnitude of more than 15 times the typical amount to compensate for what was described as an “integrity issue.”
—Matt Simmons and Lauren Watson, The Narwhal
U.S. President Donald Trump’s vows to take over Greenland have chilled relationships between American and Greenlandic researchers, halting some projects and making future collaborations uncertain.
Ross Virginia, a professor emeritus of environmental studies at Dartmouth College, said a climate program he ran with Greenlandic colleagues was halted by “mutual agreement” due to the tensions.
“Direct co-operation is paused while we determine what a future vision for collaborative science diplomacy — particularly involving education and younger students — could look like,” he said.
Another U.S. scientist, who asked not to be identified for fear of jeopardizing relationships, said some of his research partnerships in Greenland were paused even before Trump escalated talk of annexation in early January, and that he suspended fieldwork out of respect for Greenlanders.
—Bloomberg News
I’m a breaking news reporter but I’m also interested in writing stories about health, the environment, climate change and sustainable living, including zero-waste goals. If you have a story idea related to any of these topics please send an email to ticrawford@postmedia.com
