B.C.'s greenhouse gases grow 30% over 15 years
Economic and population growth undermine environmental advances
Larry Pynn
Vancouver Sun
November 24, 2006
B.C. is losing the battle to control greenhouse gas emissions because advances such as fuel-efficient vehicles and cleaner home-heating sources are being undercut by increases in population and economic growth.
Greenhouse gas emissions in B.C. increased 30 per cent to 66.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent between 1990 and 2004, Statistics Canada figures provided Thursday at The Vancouver Sun's request show.
The B.C. population increased 28 per cent to 4.2 million during that same 15-year period, while the province's gross domestic product increased 48 per cent to $140 billion.
A Statistics Canada report on Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators also shows that greenhouse gas emissions Canada-wide increased 27 per cent between 1990 and 2004 to 758 million tonnes, making our nation one of the highest per-capita greenhouse gas emitters in the world.
A typical mid-sized car driven 20,000 km a year produces about five tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Alberta and Ontario had the highest emissions of all provinces in 2004, while Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Alberta had the highest percentage increases in emissions compared with 1990. B.C.'s share of national greenhouse gas emissions has remained unchanged at about nine per cent over the 15 years.
Canada's emissions in 2004 were 35 per cent above the target to which Canada committed in December 2002 when it ratified the Kyoto protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Between 1990 and 2004, Canada's population grew by 15 per cent to 32 million.
Morag Carter, director of the David Suzuki Foundation's climate change program, said the B.C. government is going in the wrong direction through its support of coal-fired power generation, increased bridge and highway infrastructure in the Lower Mainland, and an expanded oil and gas industry, including offshore exploration.
She urged the province to establish greenhouse gas emission targets, to support more low-impact power generation such as wind power, and to update B.C.'s Energy Efficiency Act to provide new standards for doors, windows, air conditioners, and furnaces. "These are missed opportunities," she said.
Environment Minister Barry Penner could not be reached to comment. The provincial government recently approved two wind-turbine operations in the Chetwynd area.
Statistics Canada reports that the production and consumption of energy, including sources such as transportation, electricity generation, space heating and fossil fuel production and consumption, rose 30 per cent between 1990 and 2004, accounting for 82 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions in 2004.
Greenhouse gas emissions from the oil, gas and coal industry increased 49 per cent during that period, reflecting rapid growth in the production and export of crude oil and natural gas.
Forty-six per cent of Canadian industrial greenhouse gas emissions in 2002 were attributed to exports.
"Natural gas that is exported . . . contributes to the emissions of the country that burns it," explained Michael Bordt, assistant director of Statistics Canada's environment statistics division in Ottawa. "That being said, there are substantial emissions from the production of natural gas."
B.C. had 1,426 wells drilled in the oil patch in 2005 compared with 438 in 1995, as provincial coffers become increasingly reliant on petroleum revenues instead of the traditional forest sector.
Per-capita energy use for heating, lighting and appliances actually declined five per cent between 1990 and 2002, while household energy use rose eight per cent due to increases in the size of Canada's population.
Between 1981 and 2003, the proportion of Canadian households heating their homes with oil fell to 13 per cent from 34 per cent, while those heating with natural gas rose to 50 per cent from 42 per cent and those with electricity rose to 33 per cent from 21 per cent.
Compared with oil, heating with natural gas or electricity (when produced with low emission technologies such as nuclear and hydro power) produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants, Statistics Canada said.
By 2004, retail pump sales of gasoline had increased 24 per cent over 1990, reaching a record 36.6 billion litres.
Sales of diesel increased 51 per cent over the same period, reaching 4.6 billion litres.
In 2006, an estimated 67 per cent of households owned a gasoline-powered lawnmower, 21 per cent a snow blower and five per cent a leaf blower.
The trucking industry in particular has seen a dramatic rise. Since 1990, freight carried by the for-hire trucking industry increased 75 per cent to 305 million tonnes in 2003.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006