British Columbians want gas out of buildings, cleaner alternatives: poll

The final months of 2025 were not kind to those concerned about the fate of our planet.

Rollbacks of hard-won climate policies and plans swept across the country like the seasonal flu. Vancouver city council passed an aggressively anti-climate budget despite hundreds of people showing up to speak to council in opposition. 

Ontario passed legislation eliminating their legal obligation to fight climate change. 

Yet despite this, new polling shows concern about climate change remains high in BC. 78 per cent of British Columbians agree with the statement “I am worried about climate change and its potential impacts on the people and places I love.” And more than half of residents want the government to do more.

A key place to start: get gas out of our buildings.

The gas we burn to heat our homes and buildings accounts for the third-largest source of carbon pollution in BC (roughly 14.2 per cent). But cleaner, safer and healthier alternatives to gas-powered heating and cooling already exist, and if implemented correctly, can address both affordability and equity concerns. Recent polling conducted by Abacus Data — commissioned on behalf of the BC Climate Emergency Campaign and other groups — shows that support for these solutions is strong.

When asked if it was important for the BC government to speed up and strengthen its climate policies, nearly 6 in 10 survey respondents were supportive. An additional 22 per cent deemed this as somewhat important, bringing overall support to a whopping 79 per cent.  

Against the backdrop of steadily weakening climate ambition in BC and the tumultuous political and economic landscape caused by US tariffs, such high levels of support are significant. Ongoing fears around affordability and health may dominate mainstream media, but public concern about the escalating climate crisis and extreme weather events remains high.

Let’s get educated about false solutions

While support for strengthened climate ambition is high, our poll found overall awareness around key climate issues remains disturbingly low.

Only about half of British Columbians know that the primary cause of climate change is the burning of fossil fuels, which includes the “natural” gas we use to heat our homes and buildings. 47 per cent either don’t know, or believe this to be false.

Given the LNG frenzy currently gripping the BC government — and that two massive LNG projects in BC were earmarked for fast-tracking by the federal government in the fall — it is crucial that more people understand the implications of “natural” gas expansion and use. 

“Natural” gas is derived mostly through fracking in BC’s northeast and is in fact mostly methane, a potent greenhouse gas that traps over 100 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 10-year period. But only 35 per cent of survey respondents correctly identified this.

In addition to warming the planet, methane gas harms human health. Gas-burning stoves release air pollutants including formaldehyde and carcinogenic benzene, increasing the risk of children developing asthma by 42 per cent, similar to living with a smoker. Communities who live near fracking sites where gas is extracted are exposed to disproportionate levels of contaminants and air and water pollution linked to gastrointestinal problems, endocrine disruption, cancer and birth defects. But again, public awareness of these facts is woefully low.

First Nations leaders, including the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, are also raising the alarm about the adverse impacts of methane gas extraction, transport and use on their communities’ health and rights.

The silver lining of this gap in public understanding is that, with modestly better public education (and some decent leadership from elected leaders), support for strong climate policies would likely be much greater.

Investing in winning alternatives

Moving away from fracked methane gas requires cleaner, healthier alternatives. Public support for this is high: three quarters of BC residents wish to see the BC government invest in climate-resilient, non-market housing that uses electric heat pumps and air filtration systems. This is a winning idea across partisan lines; when broken down by party, 65 per cent of those who identify as Conservative voters get behind this vision. 

The public is ready to see new homes that are fully electric. 43 per cent of British Columbians support a policy that “By the end of next year, all new homes and buildings should be required to heat and cook using electricity, and not with gas or other fossil fuels.” A further 20 per cent find the policy acceptable, while only 27 per cent are opposed. As noted above, if public understanding about methane gas were improved, support would likely be stronger.

When asked about the idea of a new crown corporation or subsidiary of BC Hydro mass-producing and installing electric heat pumps, rooftop and balcony solar panels and battery storage units for BC homes — an approach that could lower costs of heat pumps by eliminating private mark-ups and gaining from bulk purchasing while boosting local employment and manufacturing — 48 per cent of British Columbians supported the idea. A further quarter thought the idea acceptable, while only 13 per cent were opposed.

Understandably, given the province’s financial constraints and ongoing tariff challenges, people may ask where the money for new investments would come from. Interestingly, nearly three quarters of BC residents agree that governments should impose an export tax on gas going to the US. Such a tax could raise billions of dollars in new public revenues.

People are also catching on to the debilitating costs of inaction. Seventy-seven per cent of respondents agree that if we fail to take strong action to confront climate change now, it will only cost us more in the future. The longer we kick the can down the road, the deeper into debt we drag ourselves once the cleanup and repair costs of future wildfires and floods inevitably escalate.

Hold private utility companies accountable

FortisBC is a regulated private company that provides gas to approximately 95 per cent of BC. But Fortis has a track record of greenwashing, using marketing and advertisements to paint a falsely “green” picture of its products. For instance, it advertises renewable natural gas (RNG) as a climate solution — it is not — and claims that customers can choose how much of their gas they wish to be renewable, up to 100 per cent. In reality, very little of BC’s gas supply is RNG, even if your bills claim otherwise.

Thankfully, there is growing interest among BC residents to hold FortisBC accountable. Nearly two thirds (61 per cent) of respondents agree that the BC government should strengthen its oversight of FortisBC and require the company to shift away from gas towards renewable energy.

The BC government should also require FortisBC to include information with each monthly bill about the climate and health risks of using gas, the benefits of electrification and heat pumps and customer information about how to transition off gas. Again, 60 per cent of respondents are amenable to this idea.

Clearly, British Columbians remain concerned about climate change and want access to cleaner solutions. If our government truly invested in public education about the causes of climate change and offered affordable, ready-to-go solutions the public could get behind, the take-up rate for clean technologies such as heat pumps would be huge. The polling clearly demonstrates that the higher your knowledge about the causes of climate change, the more likely you are to support climate policies. 

People care about breathing clean air inside their homes. They are worried about the impacts of the climate crisis and want to see ambitious government action. They want affordable heat pumps to warm and cool their homes. These solutions tackle affordability, equity and pollution at the same time and have high, cross-party support. 

Provincial politicians should take note.

Rhiannon Fox is the regional coordinator — Western Canada with the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. Dr. Melissa Lem is a family physician and past president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. Emiko Newman is the coordinator of the BC Climate Emergency Campaign. Sunil Singal is a climate campaigner with Stand.Earth. Alexandra Woodsworth is the Director of Organizing with Dogwood BC.