VANCOUVER, B.C. - The federal government and province of British Columbia have signed an agreement to tackle climate change.

Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice says the agreement is a key step toward a national, coherent climate change approach.

Prentice says the agreement will avoid the duplication of regulatory measures and adds the federal government is working closely with other provinces and territories to harmonize strategies.

But Ian Bruce of the David Suzuki Foundation says while it's encouraging to see individual provinces spurring the federal government to act, still more needs to be done.

Bruce says Canada is falling far behind the rest of the world in its clean energy spending and he's calling for a much-talked about plan that includes a cap on industrial emissions to finally be put in place.

Although the Conservative government has abandoned the international Kyoto agreement on climate change, the government says it's committed to reducing the country's total greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020 and is investing billions of dollars to protect the environment through stimulus programs.

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