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Home > GHG Inventory > Report Summary

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Canada's 2007 Greenhouse Gas Inventory

A Summary of Trends

• National Inventory
• 2007 Greenhouse Gas Emission Trends
• Short-Term Comparisons: 2004–2007
• Long-Term Comparisons by Sector: 1990–2007
• Sectoral Greenhouse Gas Emission Summary

National Inventory

As an Annex I Party (Developed Countries) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Canada is required on an annual basis to prepare and submit a national inventory of human‑induced greenhouse gas emissions from sources (e.g. fuel combustion, industrial processes) and removals by sinks (e.g. growing plants and trees) in the form of a National Inventory Report (NIR) and a set of Common Reporting Format (CRF) tables. The National Inventory must meet international reporting guidelines and quality standards, and is reviewed annually by a UN Expert Review Team.

In addition, Annex I Parties are required to continuously improve the quality of their national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory. As new information and data become available and more accurate methods are developed, previous estimates are updated to provide a consistent and comparable trend in emissions and removals.

2007 Greenhouse Gas Emission Trends

Every year, Canada prepares a national inventory of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions from sources (e.g. fuel combustion, industrial processes) and removals by sinks (e.g. growing trees).

Total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Canada in 2007 were 747 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent¹ (Mt of CO2 eq), an increase of 4.0% from 2006 levels, and of 0.8% from 2004 levels. Overall, the long-term trend indicates that emissions in 2007 were about 26% above the 1990 total of 592 Mt. This trend shows a level 33.8% above Canada’s Kyoto target of 558.4 Mt.

The fluctuation in emissions since 2003/2004 is due primarily to changes in the mix of sources used for electricity production (coal use grew in some provinces, but varied in Ontario with the availability of hydro and nuclear generation); changing emissions from fossil fuel production (as a result of the level of petroleum extraction activities); and varying demand for heating fuels for winters which warmed steadily from 2004 to 2006 but then grew much colder (by ~10%) in 2007.

Figure 1: Canadian GHG Emission 1990–2007

Short-Term Comparisons

Since 2004, total Canadian greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 6.2 Mt (0.8%). Although there were some large increases in areas such as road transportation and mining, these were offset by declines in most of the Industrial Processes subsectors and all Agriculture subsectors, as well as combustion emissions from both the Pulp and Paper industries, and “Commercial & Institutional” subsectors.

• Though between 2004 and 2007, greenhouse gas emissions from electricity and heat generation shrank slightly, they fluctuated by about 10 Mt. Against a backdrop of increasing coal power usage in some areas, fossil fuel generation varied with the availability of electricity from hydro, nuclear and, to some extent, wind power sources. Indeed, hydroelectric power generation increased throughout Canada as a result of higher water levels (precipitation in each of 2004, 2005 and 2006 was greater than the 30-year average) and increased hydro-generating capacity. At the same time, efforts have been made in Ontario to decrease coal generation and bring more nuclear plants back on line. These efforts were more successful in 2006 than 2007, when some nuclear outages necessitated increased coal generation (and hence, emissions).
• Fossil fuel production,² consisting of oil, gas and coal production, refining and transmission, showed a 7.4 Mt increase (4.6%) in greenhouse gas emissions between 2004 and 2007. During the same period, crude oil exports increased by 12%, while crude oil production increased by 8%. In contrast, domestic consumption of crude decreased by approximately 4%. At the same time, the average annual price of crude almost doubled.
• Emissions associated with Mining and Oil and Gas Extraction alone increased by 56.7% (8.4 Mt) between 2004 and 2007, largely due to increased activity at the Alberta oil sands. This was partially offset by a flattening of Canadian natural gas production and decreasing conventional petroleum production.
• On average, Canadian homes and businesses required lower amounts of energy for heating each successive year between 2004 and 2006 because of generally milder winter temperatures. In 2007, heating degree-days, an indicator of the necessity for space heating in reaction to the severity of cold weather, were up almost 10% over 2006 on a national basis. This fact almost certainly had an impact on fossil fuel consumption, in particular in the Residential and Commercial & Institutional sectors, where emissions have increased by a total of 5.5 Mt or 7.5% since 2006.
• These contributing factors led to low emissions in 2006, followed by a strong increase in 2007.

Long-Term Comparisons by Sector: 1990–2007

Sector Trends

• Between 1990 and 2007, the net increase in Canada’s annual greenhouse gas emissions totalled about 155 Mt. Over the same period, emissions from the energy industries (fossil fuel production and electric power) and transportation areas increased by about 143 Mt, accounting for most of the overall increase.

Figure 2: Trends in GHG Emissions per Capita and per Unit GDP, 1990–2007

1 Statistics Canada's Report on Energy Supply and Demand In Canada 2007 (57-003), Table S, Line 2 (Availability – Total Primary).
2 Statistics Canada's Report on Energy Supply and Demand In Canada 2007 (57-003), Natural Gas and Crude Oil.

• Within these two energy areas, the greatest contributors to the overall increase were the 117% increase from Light-duty Gasoline Trucks, the 32% increase from Electricity and Heat Generation, and the 94% increase from Heavy-duty Diesel Vehicles. Much of the increase in fossil fuel production is attributable to the rapid growth in crude oil and natural gas exports to the United States over the period.
• The Industrial Processes, Agriculture and Waste sectors contributed to changes in emissions levels; they showed a 3.4 Mt decrease, a 11.2 Mt increase and a 2.5 Mt increase, respectively, since 1990.

Energy Industries

• Emissions from the energy industries (including Electricity and Heat Generation, Fossil Fuel Industries, combustion emissions from Pipelines and Fugitive releases) rose by about 74 Mt between 1990 and 2007. Over half of that increase (43.9 Mt) was from the Fossil Fuel Industries, Pipelines and Fugitive categories, a product of the increase in oil and gas production over the period. The remainder of the increase in the energy industries (30.5 Mt) was in Electricity and Heat Generation, a result of greater electricity demand, coupled with continuing increases in the use of coal-fired power generation since 1990.
• Mining emissions have risen 17.1 Mt or 276% since 1990. While this subsector does include emissions for non-energy related mining, an increasing proportion is represented by those emissions from the activities associated with Canada’s oil sands, which saw four new projects commence operations in 2007.
• Fugitive releases (e.g. venting and flaring from oil production, methane leaks from pipelines) by themselves contributed significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. The current estimates show an increase of 22.2 Mt between 1990 and 2007, a growth of about 52%. Much of this increase is the result of higher crude oil and natural gas exports.

Transportation

• Emissions in the Transportation subsector rose by about 54.5 Mt, or 37.5% from 1990 to 2007. Of particular note in this sector is a 24.3 Mt-increase (more than 117%) in the emissions from light‑duty gasoline trucks, reflecting the growing popularity of sport utility vehicles.
• Emissions from heavy‑duty diesel vehicles increased 19.4 Mt over the period, indicative of greater heavy-truck transport. Offsetting these increases were reductions of 4.7 Mt from gasoline-fuelled cars and 1.4 Mt from alternatively fuelled cars.

Residential

• Residential emissions were essentially the same in 2007 as they were in 1990 (up 0.2% or 0.1 Mt). Here, the impact of the long-term trend of improved energy standards for homes and the adoption of higher-efficiency furnaces and other improved appliances has served to reduce emissions.

Industrial Processes Sector

• Emissions in the Industrial Processes Sector witnessed an overall decrease of 3.4 Mt, or 6.2%, from 1990 to 2007. Although some subsectors within this group did show significant increases (e.g. emissions from use of hydrofluorocarbons in refrigeration and air conditioning, which are substitutes to ozone‑depleting substances, have grown by 4.5 Mt since 1995—an almost 1000% increase), there were some significant reductions to make up for them.
• Emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O)—from Canada’s sole adipic acid manufacturing plant—decreased by 9.2 Mt after the installation of N2O abatement technology. Also, process emissions from the aluminium industry decreased by 2.0 Mt, or 21.7%, from 1990 to 2007 because of improved perfluorocarbon emission control technologies.

Agriculture Sector

• In the Agriculture Sector, the expansion of the beef cattle, swine and poultry industries, along with increases in the application of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer in the Prairies, resulted in a long-term greenhouse gas emission growth of 11.2 Mt. This 23.1% increase for the Agriculture Sector contributed the equivalent of 7.2% to the overall national increase.

Waste Sector

• From 1990 to 2007, greenhouse gas emissions from the Waste Sector increased by about 2.5 Mt, or 13.4%—lower than the population growth of approximately 19%. This appears largely due to the generation of increasing amounts of waste in landfills. This increase would have been larger but for the implementation of landfill gas recovery projects and waste diversion programs (composting and recycling) in Canada.

Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry Sector (not included in national totals)

• The trend in emissions from sources and removals by sinks in Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (i.e. agricultural soils, managed forests, wetlands and land-use change) shows that the whole sector can be either a sink or a source, which means that this whole sector can either emit greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, or remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere (sinks remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere). In 2007, this sector amounted to a net source of emissions of 45 Mt. Trends in the sector are primarily driven by changes occurring in the forests. Changes are dominated by the erratic pattern of forest fires, which can hide human-associated activities, such as the harvesting of wood. For example, over the last 10 years, an average 48 Mt of carbon was removed annually from the forests in harvested wood, an increase of 19% since the early 1990s. Nevertheless, the impact of major forest disturbances in recent years, notably the mountain pine beetle infestation in Western Canada and large areas burned by wildfires in 1995, 1998 and 2002, undoubtedly dominates the greenhouse gas emission and removal patterns in managed forests.
• The Cropland category includes the effect of agricultural practices on carbon dioxide emissions and removals from arable soils (soils suitable for growing crops) and the impact of converting forest and grassland to cropland. In 2007, carbon sequestration in arable soils more than made up for emissions from lands converted to cropland with, as a result, a net sink of 3.4 Mt. The continued adoption of no-till and reduced-tillage practices and the reduction of summer fallow have resulted in a steadily increasing ability of cultivated soils to behave like sinks.
• Forest land converted to cropland, wetlands and settlements amount to additional emissions of about 20 Mt in 2007, down from 27 Mt in 1990. The conversion of forest and grassland to cropland alone shows a steady decrease in GHG emissions from 15 Mt in 1990 to 8 Mt in 2007.

Sectoral Greenhouse Gas Emission Summary

1. Each greenhouse gas has a different potential to contribute to warming. Scientists assign each gas a “global warming potential” (GWP), based on the gas' ability to contribute to climate change. Carbon dioxide is set as the baseline with a global warming potential of 1 (for example, the GWP for methane (CH4) is 21).

2. Sum of Mining and Oil and Gas Extraction, Fossil Fuel Industries, Pipelines (Transportation) and Fugitive releases.