On December 10, 2019, UBC declared a climate emergency and formally recognized the importance of UBC taking a leadership role in combating the crisis. Just over five years later — and with five to go on many promises — The Ubyssey broke down what the university has done to address the climate emergency so far.
Some history first
UBC’s climate emergency declaration came after years of student advocacy and pressure on the UBC Board of Governors (BoG). This pressure came to a head when thousands protested for climate justice outside UBC’s Alumni Centre in September 2019. Around a week later, over 1,500 UBC community members signed and delivered an open letter calling for UBC to declare climate change an emergency.
In his declaration of the emergency, then-UBC President Santa Ono said he would launch a community engagement process and establish working groups to combat the crisis. The Climate Emergency Task Force (CETF) was one such group formed, and it released its nine priorities in a final report in January, 2021.
Some priorities focused on advocating for justice-based climate action or expanding climate education — on reducing emissions, however, the only priority listed was to “support the forthcoming recommendations … emerging from the Climate Action Plan 2030 process.”
Almost a full year later, the university published its Climate Action Plan 2030 (CAP 2030).
John Madden, the director of sustainability and engineering at Campus + Community Planning, said in a 2025 interview with The Ubyssey that CAP 2030 is meant to ensure the university is taking an institutional approach to advancing climate action.
By recommendation of the CETF, CAP 2030’s emissions reductions goal aligns with the 1.5℃ benchmark, which is an international policy benchmark for limiting the worst impacts of the climate crisis, particularly for nations in the Global South. CAP 2030 outlines the university’s operational emissions, extended emissions and climate adaptation plans across the Vancouver campus.
Operational emissions reductions
CAP 2030 proposed an 85 per cent reduction in campus operational emissions compared to a 2007 baseline. 2007 is the baseline year BC also uses for its emission reduction targets; both the province and UBC have been using the 2007 baseline since 2010.
“Operational emissions,” according to Madden, are often referred to as Scope 1 or 2 emissions, meaning the university is able to directly influence them. These include emissions from electricity, heating and cooling.
In 2023, UBCV had a total of 39,593 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) emissions. Data for 2024 is not yet available.
Additionally, in the past five years (2019–2023), the institution has only decreased emissions by 2.03 per cent, and between 2022 and 2023, UBC actually increased its emissions by 7.74 per cent. To meet its CAP 2030 target of 9,162 tCO2e, UBC will need a 423 per cent reduction in the next 5 years.
UBCV’s largest source of operational emissions comes from buildings’ heating and electricity, accounting for approximately 30 per cent of total 2023 emissions, according to the CAP 2030 progress dashboard.
“This is probably the biggest area, both in terms of the cost, but also in terms of the impact,” said Madden.
CAP 2030 aims for 100 per cent of the Academic Distinct Energy System (ADES) to be supplied by low-carbon sources. As of 2023, it is at 21 per cent. The ADES is the campus's main way of heating buildings and was UBC’s single largest source of 2023 emissions, according to CAP 2030.
Madden said the university’s two focal points for reducing operational emissions have been through use of the Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility (BRDF) near Marine Drive and the Campus Energy Centre near Thunderbird Parkade.
The BRDF has been a key part of UBC’s emissions reduction plan since it opened in 2012. The university invested in tripling its capacity in 2017 and it was completed in 2021. The facility generates the majority of the ADES’s renewable energy via urban waste wood (a type of biofuel) and supplies roughly three quarters of campus’s operational energy demands.
For Madden, UBC's increased usage of the BRDF over the years shows the campus's commitment to fulfilling sustainable energy demands. However, it isn’t a perfect system.
“When the Bioenergy [Research and Demonstration] Facility can't meet peak demands during really cold periods, we rely on the Campus Energy Centre,” Madden said. “And that's currently being supplied with natural gas, which has a high emissions profile.”
According to Madden, UBC is planning to electrify the currently natural gas-powered thermal boilers in the Campus Energy Centre to help meet its emissions-reduction goal. However, the project comes with a $42 million price tag.
“We are now exploring different funding options to support the implementation of that project, and that requires partnership with senior levels of government working to identify revenue streams from the university and other strategic partnerships,” said Madden.
There is currently no timeline for the Campus Energy Centre’s electrification that is more detailed than the CAP 2030 target.
Extended emissions reductions
Extended emissions — or Scope 3 emissions — refer to those outside the university’s jurisdiction but for which it remains responsible for; this includes emissions from transportation, food choices and embodied carbon.
UBC committed to a 45 per cent reduction in extended emissions compared to 2010 levels. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change uses 2010 as a baseline for the highest likelihood of keeping emissions-warming under 1.5℃.
However, the university’s Scope 3 emissions have increased every year since 2020 and will need a 401 per cent reduction from 2023 onward in order to meet its 2030 target.
Transportation is the university’s largest extended emissions source, accounting for approximately 33 per cent of UBC’s total 2023 emissions.
Commuting emissions are supposed to have a 45 per cent reduction since 2010 levels, but according to the CAP 2030 progress dashboard, as of 2023, only a 6.8 per cent reduction has occurred — meaning UBC will have to dramatically ramp up its reductions to stay on target.
Madden said most of the efforts around reducing commuting emissions rely on other plans, which means UBC is advocating for better public transit and urban planning.
“Introducing more student housing on campus, more faculty and staff housing on campus enables that shift to walking, cycling and transit to be much more accessible,” he said.
Madden also confirmed parking price increases from previous years have been to de-incentive single car commuting with some of the increase going toward sustainable transportation.
He also spoke of the importance of individual choices when addressing the climate crisis, mentioning transportation and food choices specifically.
“That's where we will succeed — when everybody takes an active role in addressing the emissions in the day-to-day choices that they make, in addition to the investments that the university is making to support getting to those other goals around operational emissions,” said Madden.
Divestment progress
Although divestment from fossil fuels does not fall under the scope of CAP 2030, it was a large focus for many climate activist groups in 2019. Divestment supporters say withdrawing money invested in companies which engage in harmful climate practices reduces those companies’ resources and therefore the extent they’re able to conduct extractive practices alongside it.
One of the CETF’s recommendations was to “fully divest from fossil fuels across all asset classes by 2025.”
In December 2019, the BoG passed a motion for the “full divestment of the remaining balance of the $1.71 billion Main Endowment Fund from the fossil fuel industry.”
UBC’s Investment Management (UBCIM) is in charge of divestment for the UBC Endowment Fund and UBC Staff Pension Plan (SPP).
In a 2025 email statement to The Ubyssey, UBC Director of University Affairs Matthew Ramsey said that as of September 30, 2024, only 0.8 per cent of UBC’s Endowment Fund remained invested in fossil fuel companies. Ramsey did not answer how much money this equated to or has been divested to date.
“The exposure percentage will fluctuate over time based on investment market conditions, oil prices, and holdings of investment managers,” he wrote.
UBC’s 2024 Endowment Update, however, noted the Fund was worth $2.4 billion, meaning 0.8 per cent equates to approximately $19.2 million.
While the overall trend for both funds is decreasing, according to the most recent and available UBCIM Responsible Investing Report, both the carbon emissions and carbon intensity from these portfolios have increased since 2021.
Ramsey reiterated that the reported figures will vary because of market conditions “as well as improvements to the quality of emissions reporting by companies.”
Carbon emissions intensity and overall emissions are different measures — carbon emissions intensity looks at how many emissions are emitted per a measure, in this case, per million dollars, while emissions is the overall amount released. They are independent variables and as such, it is possible for intensity to decrease while emissions continue to grow.
Despite this, Ramsey wrote that the university is “on track to fully divest by 2030.”
“UBCIM is actively working with our peers and investment managers to establish additional fossil fuel free strategies to meet the 2030 target.”
However, the divestment commitment only applies to the two funds. Other academic units, such as faculties or departments, are separate and not held to the same divestment standard. UBC also has not committed to phasing out harmful research partnerships or donations.
A 2023 report from UBC Climate Hub outlined how fossil fuel-funded research also has impacts on the university’s climate commitments. From 1999–2021, the earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences department received over $11 million in fossil-fuel funded research. Several departments received scholarships totalling over $200,000 from fossil fuel companies.
“While UBC is slowly phasing out fossil fuel investments from its endowment, UBC has made no other steps to end partnerships with the industry — violating the Climate Emergency Task Force’s recommendations,” reads the report.
UBC also has the Pipeline Integrity Institute, which has sponsorships from nine different industry partners including TransMountain, Fortis BC and Enbridge — all of which are fossil fuel beneficiaries. Pipeline companies TransMountain and Enbridge have faced scrutiny for ignoring Indigenous voices and Fortis BC is facing a lawsuit for its “greenwashed” natural gas advertisements. Although these sponsorships provide training and funding to current engineers, they also undermine academic freedom and research outcomes.
“Academic independence is something we need across all areas if we want to be able to truly trust the research," said Garry Gray, a UVic professor who studies how funding biases can skew academic research, in a 2015 CBC interview.
The report also notes these partnerships “can help students network and influence their perceptions of the fossil fuel industry as stable, desirable, and reputable.”
The CETF notes research as UBC’s primary way of combating the climate crisis, but the Climate Hub report states that “[f]ossil fuel research funding profoundly compromises this role.”
“A just transition away from fossil fuel university funding is not only possible, but vital to fulfill UBC’s climate commitments."
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