Proponents of a new climate change website told a Union of B.C. Municipalities session that their efforts will help local governments take action on carbon emissions, but local politicians grumbled that increased funding would do more.

The toolkit website was launched yesterday by the Green Communities Committee, a provincial-UBCM group that consults with municipalities across the province.

Alan Osborne, an executive director with the Ministry of Community Services, said the site will provide legal, economic and technical information to local governments.

"It should be your first stop in terms of climate change advice," he said.

The goal of the site is to help municipalities meet the targets set out in last year's BC Climate Action Charter. The targets include neutralizing government carbon output by 2012, measuring and reporting community-wide emissions and working towards overall energy efficiency.

So far, 133 out of 188 municipalities have agreed to take part in the voluntary program, Osborne said.

"There's a big demand for information," he said. "The website will start to address those demands."

Qualicum Beach councillor Mike Wansink said he would like to cut local government emissions but the investment costs too much. To become carbon neutral, he said, his town would have to purchase electric cars and power official buildings and streetlights with expensive green energy.

"Municipalities probably don't have enough resources to be able to buy those sorts of things," he said. "Zero net emissions in three years is virtually impossible."

Osborne agreed that it would be a hard goal to reach, but said a variety of provincial, federal and private programs exist to aid local governments.

He added that municipalities can also purchase offsets – investments in climate change initiatives such as wetland preservation – if they find it too difficult to eliminate their own carbon emissions.

Quesnel Mayor Nate Bello told The Tyee that his city staff is already stretched to the limit trying to deal with such issues as mountain pine beetles and economic development.

"The website is great but cash would be better," he said.

Geoff Dembicki is a staff reporter for The Hook.