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September 09, 2025

As part of the Accelerating Community Energy Transformation (ACET) initiative, Tamara Krawchenko co-leads a collaborative research project together with Kara Shaw (Environmental Studies, UVic) and Sinead Earley (Environmental and Sustainability Studies, UNBC) that helps diverse communities and First Nations across northern British Columbia identify their shared interests, needs and opportunities to transition to renewable energy.

So far this year, Krawchenko and team have convened seven community conversations (with approximately 115 individual participants) and one regional dialogue in Northwest BC, held in Terrace. These community-based conversations show what people are concerned about, and where they see the potential for renewable energy investments.

“The discussions were dynamic,” says Krawchenko, who is also an associate professor of public administration at UVic. “At the NorthCAN Forum in Prince George, the heart of the session was the ‘Scripting Pathways for Progress’ activity, where participants worked in groups to imagine, discuss and report on both worst- and best-case scenarios for the future of their regional energy systems. They expressed their hopes and concerns for the energy transition, and explored how to advance towards the future they want.”

The key issues at that forum included the forestry-energy nexus, policy, skills and training, meaningful dialogue in community, energy sovereignty and security, finance and more.

In Smithers, many participants raised concerns around the hydroelectric grid, especially the lack of energy diversity, power outages and susceptibility to natural disasters such as floods and wildfires. They identified larger scale, local, renewable-energy possibilities such as abundant solar and water resources. They’re also looking for ways to innovate with waste-to-energy and circular economy initiatives, possibly including biomass energy, heat capture from industrial facilities, landfill methane collection and compost conversion.

Leadership was a major topic of both concern and opportunity in Kitimat, which is struggling to balance strong industrial activity with environmental concerns. In contrast, the village of Burns Lake is a service hub for a dispersed rural population with an appetite for energy independence from a centralized hydroelectric grid that is increasingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

“Across all of these conversations we’re seeing a big interest in communities learning from each other and scaling initiatives,” says Krawchenko. “That’s part of the foundational vision of ACET, and with these conversations, we’re really seeing it in action.”

Northern Regional Energy Dialogues is an Accelerating Community Energy Transformation (ACET) project co-led by Sinead Earley, Tamara Krawchenko and Kara Shaw in partnership between the ßÉßɱ¬ÁÏ and University of Northern British Columbia and with support from the Community Energy Association and Northern British Columbia Climate Action Network (NorthCAN).

The are publicly available online and highlight the strong community engagement and solutions-oriented mindset of the organizers and participants.

This work supports UN Sustainable Development Goals 3 Good health and well-being; 7 Affordable and clean energy; 11 Sustainable cities and communities; 13 Climate action.

 

Rachel Goldsworthy