B.C. climate news: Metro Vancouver moves to stage 3 water restrictions Monday | Out-of-control wildfire in B.C.’s Cariboo prompts alert | Environment Canada forecasts hotter-than-normal summer for B.C.
Here’s all the latest local and international news concerning climate change for the week of June 1 to June 7, 2026.
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Here’s the latest news concerning climate change and biodiversity loss in B.C. and around the world, from the steps leaders are taking to address the problems, to all the up-to-date science.
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In climate news this week:
• B.C. Hydro cancels plan to phase out gas-powered generation as electricity gap looms
• Evacuation alert issued for out-of-control wildfire in B.C.’s Cariboo
• No pools, no lawn watering: Stage 3 water restrictions start Monday for Metro Vancouver
• Americans doubt countries will do enough to tame climate change
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 and ocean 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 May 5, 2026, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 431.12 parts per million, up from 429.35 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
B.C. Hydro says it needs to keep two natural-gas-powered generating stations operational to meet a looming electricity shortfall, pushing back provincial goals to phase out fossil-fuel generation by the end of the decade.
Hydro, in a filing to the B.C. Utilities Commission, said it needs to extend operations of the Island Generation natural gas-fired plant in Campbell River and the McMahon gas plant near Fort St. John to fill most of a 500-megawatt generating shortfall the utility anticipates by 2030.
“This has resulted in a need for capacity in the early years of the planning horizon, prior to new clean and renewable capacity resources coming into service,” Chris Sandve, Hydro’s chief regulatory officer, wrote in the filing.
Extending operations of the 275-megawatt Island Generation gas plant and the 120-megawatt McMahon plant, Sandve added, would fill 400 megawatts of that shortfall to meet peak demand.
Extending Island Generation and McMahon, however, represents a policy shift from the province’s objective of eliminating the use of fossil fuels in generating electricity, which is a concern to climate advocates worried about locking in new sources of fossil-fuel generation.
—Derrick Penner
An evacuation alert was issued this week for properties near an out-of-control wildfire in the Cariboo region of central B.C.
The Cariboo Regional District says the alert affects six properties in a rural area near the Swede Creek wildfire, located about four kilometres southwest of Comstock Lake and about 100 kilometres southwest of Prince George.
Regional officials say the alert was issued because of the potential danger to life and health from the rapidly spreading blaze.
They’re asking that all area residents area have a plan to transport family members or co-workers outside of the area if the alert is upgraded to an evacuation order.
The wildfire, which broke out Monday, is now estimated to be more than 18 square kilometres, up from 13 earlier in the day, the B.C. Wildfire Service said in an update Wednesday afternoon.
—Tiffany Crawford
Metro Vancouver water restrictions will move into Stage 3 beginning Monday.
Under Stage 3, all lawn watering is banned, though trees, shrubs and flowers can be watered any time with a water container, drip irrigation or hoses with spring-loaded nozzles. All sprinklers and soaker hoses are banned under Stage 3.
Vegetable gardens can still be watered at any time, but pools, hot tubs and decorative water features can’t be filled or refilled.
To wash your car, you’ll have to visit a commercial car wash instead of hosing it down in your driveway, though you are still allowed to wash windows, lights, mirrors and licence plates, as well as boat engines for safety.
Metro is responsible for ensuring the region’s drinking water supply remains at adequate levels despite a low snowpack and a hot-and-dry summer.
—Stephanie Ip
Hotter-than-normal summer forecast for B.C.
B.C. residents can expect a hotter-than-normal summer driven by human-caused climate change and a strong El Niño, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada’s seasonal outlook released Friday.
The outlook says warmer-than-normal temperatures are expected across most of Canada. The federal weather agency says there is a 100 per cent probability that parts of southern B.C., including Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island will be hotter than normal.
Meteorologists say a transition to a strong El Niño is expected to develop this summer.
El Niño occurs when the surface water temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean become warmer than average, the agency said. This rise in temperature changes the atmosphere circulation and weather patterns around the globe, which can impact food supplies, energy systems, and influence extreme climate.
The federal weather agency adds that climate change is causing extreme hot temperatures at a greater frequency than in the past, increasing the severity of heat waves and contributing to the risk of drought and wildfires.
—Tiffany Crawford
Americans doubt countries will do enough to tame climate change
Climate change is in the background this U.S. election year as high prices, conflict in the Middle East, AI and other issues take centre stage. But that doesn’t mean the public has forgotten about it.
More than half of Americans regard climate change as a very, or moderately big, problem, and only a quarter of them think the world is equipped to address the challenge, according to new survey results from the Pew Research Center.
Since the group’s previous poll on the topic in 2022, storms, heat and wildfires worsened by greenhouse gas pollution have continued to damage communities and take lives. Biden-era and older policies to boost clean technology and lower emissions have been reversed quickly in President Donald Trump’s second term.
Democrats and those who lean to the left have moved toward pessimism: 69 per cent of them said the U.S. and other countries will not do enough to address risks — an 18-percentage-point leap in four years. Overall, the share of respondents saying countries won’t avoid the worst impacts of climate change is 62 per cent, up nine percentage points.
—Bloomberg News
Saving supply chains from climate shocks is a lure for investors
On the tarmac of Kuala Lumpur International Airport, a cargo of drugs on their way to a clinical trial were warming in the rising afternoon sun. At risk of being spoiled, a newly installed tracker that monitors temperature, humidity and location, alerted the pharmaceutical company in real-time about the threat.
The intervention earlier this month is an example of how nascent technology can help protect the world’s $35 trillion global trade system, not just from geopolitical disruption and human error, but also from an increasingly unpredictable climate.
Without an alert about potential high-temperature risks to the clinical product, “then guess what? You wasted thousands of dollars to ship it, thousands of dollars to do the clinical trial,” said Krenar Komoni, the founder of technology startup Tive Inc. that developed the tracker.
This year, the month of April was the joint third-hottest globally on record, behind 2024 and 2025. Heatwaves are continuing across much of Asia and forecasters predict with a high degree of confidence that a powerful El Niño developing in the tropical Pacific Ocean could unleash record temperatures.
The impacts of extreme weather events fuelled by global warming, including heatwaves, storms, floods and wildfires, are mounting for business globally. Companies transporting pharmaceuticals, food and high-value technology goods such as microchips are particularly vulnerable to temperature, humidity and delays.
—Bloomberg News
Heat wave expected in Morocco: report
Temperatures are expected to soar above 40 C in Morocco next week, according to a report by Morocco World News.
The report says Morocco’s General Directorate of Meteorology has issued an orange-level weather alert warning of a heat wave expected to affect several parts of the country from Monday through Wednesday.
The report says many residents can expect temperatures between 41 C and 44 C during this time.
The country has experienced recurring heat waves in recent weeks, according to the report.
—Morocco World News
