Performance Indicator 15: Greenhouse Gases

Where BC Ranks, Provincial Comparison

	Notes Alberta's per capita GHG emissions are by far the highest in the country. Therefore Alberta's emissions are tracked on the right axis in the figure above. The data presented above for Canada do not match the UN data exactly. The difference is small however (0.7 percent, on average) and is smaller than the average discrepancy between Environment Canada's (EC) "sum of provinces" and "Canada" data. Environment Canada data for Canada and BC are used above.

Performance Indicator Fifteen tracks how many tonnes of greenhouse gases were emitted per person in a year. Lower emissions yield better ranks.

In 2005, BC's per capita GHG emission levels were second lowest in Canada at 15.5 tonnes, a 0.6 percent increase from 1990, when emissions were 15.4 tonnes per capita. In 2005, Quebec had the lowest per capita GHG emissions at 11 .8 tonnes, while Alberta had the highest at 71.6 tonnes. The Canadian average in 2005 was 23.1 tonnes per capita.

Eight provinces had declines in their per capita greenhouse gas emissions between 2004 and 2005. The largest decline (3.8 percent) was in British Columbia. Saskatchewan (0.6 percent) and Newfoundland and Labrador (1.6 percent) had the only increases.

BC's significant reliance on "clean" hydroelectric power generation contributes to its favourable ranking.

International Comparison

British Columbia underperforms on greenhouse gas emissions per capita relative to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. According to 2004 data, BC ranked 22nd of 28 jurisdictions with per capita emissions of 16.1 tonnes.

The three countries with the lowest per capita emissions were: Switzerland (7.1 tonnes), Sweden (7.8 tonnes) and Portugal (8.0 tonnes).

Worldwide CO₂ Emissions

Worldwide data are not available on the six main gases the United Nations (UN) tracks, but they are available for CO2. In 2004, carbon dioxide (CO2) represented 83.8 percent of the greenhouse gases tracked by the UN.

According to preliminary estimates, China overtook the United States as the largest emitter of CO₂ in 2006. The most recent full data set, for 2004, shows the US as the largest emitter with 22.2 percent of the global total followed by China (18.4 percent), then by the Russian Federation, India and Japan all at about five percent. Out of 210 countries, the eight largest emitters, including Canada at 2.3 percent of the total, are responsible for 63.2 percent of global CO₂ emissions.

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