Christy Clark’s government asks you to give your family B.C. coal for Christmas

Are you a last minute shopper?

Don’t worry. Christy Clark’s government has an idea: consider leaving lumps of B.C. coal in your loved ones’ stockings this Christmas.

“Stuff your stockings with B.C. coal,” reads the headline of an actual press release issued by B.C.’s Ministry of Energy and Mines on Saturday.

“No matter whether you light the menorah, trim the tree or setup the Festivus Pole, your holiday activities likely have a connection to a lump of coal mined right here in British Columbia.”

Stuff your stockings with #BC coal: http://t.co/1QQhoBfhrd

— BC Government News (@BCGovNews) December 13, 2014

In other news, 194 countries agreed to a new deal at the United Nations climate change conference in Lima, Peru, where delegates were seeking to draft a framework for each country to provide a “detailed domestic policy plan to cut its emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases from coal, gas and oil.” 

Although the language of the deal has been criticized as “very weak” by environmental policy analysts, the European Union is optimistic the agreement could lay the groundwork for a bigger international climate change deal in 2015.

“Although the EU wanted a more ambitious outcome from Lima, we believe that we are on track to agree a global deal in Paris next year,” said Miguel Arias Cañete, EU Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy.

The federal government did not immediately respond to the outcome of the Lima talks, but Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq highlighted Canada’s efforts to “reduce emissions from coal” as a reason Canada is a “world leader.” Aglukkaq referred to coal as “the largest source of GHG emissions in the world.”

Meanwhile in B.C., although “most people don’t think of coal when they go shopping for gifts,” the Energy and Mines Minister in the BC Liberal government wants to assure you that “British Columbians can take pride in knowing that no matter the product or where it was made, it probably wouldn’t exist without B.C. coal.”