News Archive Article

Greenhouse gas emissions decrease for second year

OTTAWA, ONTAIRO - Greenhouse-gas emissions in Canada declined for a second year in a row during 2006, falling to 721 million tonnes, or by 1.9 per cent from a year earlier, according to figures released by Environment Canada.

The back-to-back reduction was attributed to a drop in the amount of coal used to produce electricity, warmer winters leading to reduced fuel consumption for space heating, and less fossil fuel use in the oil refining industry. Emissions haven't fallen for consecutive years since modern record keeping started in 1990.

Emissions peaked in 2004 at 743 million tonnes, and the reduction since then has been the equivalent of taking about seven million cars off the road.

Although Ottawa has put in place a number of programs to cut Canada's releases, the reasons cited for the fall had little to do with federal action, and Environment Minister John Baird reacted cautiously to the numbers.

“While greenhouse-gas emissions have decreased in 2006 for a number of reasons, we have to continue the fight against climate change,” he said in a statement.

Canada's single largest program to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions is in Ontario, which has pledged to cut releases from coal-fired power plants by two-thirds below 2003 levels by 2011.

The drop still leaves Canada well behind its target for reducing greenhouse emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, which requires the country to cut its releases to below 1990 levels during the period from 2008 to 2012.

Emissions in 2006 were 22 per cent above the 1990 total and almost 30 per cent above Canada's Kyoto target of 558 megatonnes, giving Canada one of the poorer records in the industrialized world when it comes to reducing global warming pollution from the burning of fossil fuels.

Experts who follow trends in greenhouse-gas emissions expressed surprise at the drop. It is “a surprise actually that for the second year in a row that there would be emission reductions,” said John Drexhage, director of climate change and energy programs at the Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development.

Related News

POWERLINES

Hydro wants B.C. residents to pay an extra $2 a month for electricity

VANCOUVER - The British Columbia government says the province’s Crown power utility is applying for a 2.3-per-cent rate increase starting in April, adding about $2 a month to the average residential bill.

A statement from the Energy Ministry says it’s the sixth year in a row that BC Hydro has applied for an increase below the rate of inflation.

It says rates are currently 15.6 per cent lower than the cumulative rate of inflation over the last seven years, starting in 2017-2018, and 12.4 per cent lower than the 10-year rates plan established by the previous government in 2013.

The ministry says the…

READ MORE
Hydro One CEO's $4.5M salary Point of Controversy

Hydro One CEO's $4.5M salary won't be reduced to help cut electricity costs

READ MORE

elon musk

Tesla CEO Elon Musk slams Texas energy agency as unreliable: "not earning that R"

READ MORE

powerlines

Hydro-Quebec begins talks for $185-billion strategy to wean the province off fossil fuels

READ MORE

american dollars

PG&E Supports Local Communities as It Pays More Than $230 Million in Property Taxes to 50 California Counties

READ MORE