B.C. earns ‘B’ grade in moving towards building electrification

Key Takeaways:

• British Columbia received a grade of B in the 2025 Building Electrification Scorecard for its progress in shifting buildings to clean power.
• The province has seen a significant shift in the heating market as heat pump imports now exceed natural gas furnaces and household adoption has increased by eighty percent over five years.
• Despite policy successes such as the Zero Carbon Step Code, experts warn that the removal of the consumer carbon tax has weakened essential market signals and created uncertainty for the industry.

The Whole Story:

B.C. has made meaningful progress in shifting buildings to clean power, earning a “B” grade in the Building to Electrification Coalition’s 2025 Building Electrification Scorecard, but the group argues the removal of the consumer carbon tax has undermined a key market signal needed to accelerate the transition.

The annual assessment, released by the Building to Electrification Coalition (B2E), found that local and regional governments are advancing policy adoption while heat pump imports now exceed natural gas furnaces. However, uneven implementation of CleanBC and the loss of carbon pricing have created uncertainty for industry and barriers to electrification.

“B.C. has made meaningful progress over the past five years in shifting buildings to clean power. We have the tools to make electrification the default, but scaling that progress will require tackling key challenges along with strong, consistent market signals,” said Mariko Michasiw, B2E Program Manager at the Zero Emissions Innovation Centre, in a statement.

The scorecard highlights several policy wins in 2025. The Zero Carbon Step Code (ZCSC) now requires all new builds in B.C. to meet EL-1 standards, with over 30 local governments adopting higher-than-minimum levels representing around 50 per cent of new building starts. The Capital Regional District launched a building benchmarking program to track and reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in existing properties.

BC Hydro has updated connection tariffs and distribution upgrades to address cost concerns for delivering power to buildings. Manufacturers are also phasing out high global warming potential refrigerants in heat pumps, introducing a new generation with about one-third less climate impact.

Between 2017 and 2022, heat-pump-equipped B.C. households increased by approximately 80 per cent, from an estimated 142,000 to 254,000 units. In 2022 and 2023, distributors brought in more heat pumps than natural gas furnaces for the first time.

The scorecard notes that buildings account for approximately 25 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in Metro Vancouver and eight per cent across the province. The Government of B.C. is requiring cooling measures, such as heat pumps, in new buildings to address worsening climate impacts including heat waves. A 2024 survey of over 100 firms found 85 per cent expect growth in demand for climate-friendly, energy-efficient homes by 2030.