Housing and climate crises: Housing sufficiency policies to address supply shortage in BC

British Columbia is currently dealing with the climate crisis and a housing affordability crisis. CMHC recommends that the province increase housing supply by an additional 500,000 units by 2030 to meaningfully improve affordability, but doing so will increase greenhouse gas emissions. BC's current environmental and housing policies are incapable of reconciling the province's GHG emission reduction and housing affordability goals. This study applies the 'sufficiency framework' for environmental policy to the BC housing context and uses a literature review and jurisdictional scan to identify housing sufficiency policies and to determine the most significant barriers to their implementation in BC. I develop four policy options for increasing housing supply and minimizing GHG emissions , and conduct a multi-criteria analysis to evaluate their effectiveness. Ultimately, this study recommends that the Government of BC pass legislation to allow the development of multi-family dwellings on all residential lots zoned for single-detached housing across the province.