True North Reads
“Canada is moving in the right direction,” Guilbeault lauds lockdowns for cutting emissions
Government-imposed lockdowns and travel bans cut Canada’s greenhouse emissions and Environment minister Steven Guilbeault couldn’t be happier.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, a Department of Environment report acknowledged the government’s climate targets benefited from public health restrictions.
“2020 was marked by the Covid-19 pandemic coinciding with a decrease in emissions,” said the Executive Summary of the department’s National Inventory Report 1990-2020.
According to the report, national emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-causing gases fell by 9% from 738 million tonnes to 672 million tonnes. The Trudeau government has set a climate target of 519 million tonnes. Only two provinces saw an increase in emissions – Alberta (up 8%) and Manitoba (up 6%).
In response, Guilbeault described the drop in emissions as an achievement for Canadians.
“Progress happens step by step,” said Guilbeault in a statement.
“With this year’s report to the United Nations we can see that Canada is moving in the right direction.”
CP24: Reads
OTTAWA - Canada's greenhouse gas emissions plummeted to their lowest level in almost three decades in 2020 as pandemic restrictions kept cars off the road and grounded airplanes for months on end.
But a new and more accurate way to count methane emissions from the oil and gas industry means Canada emitted more than previously thought over the last 25 years, dampening some of the better news in the emissions report published Thursday.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said in a written statement that overall the 2020 report is a good news day for the planet.
That year, Canada produced 672 million tonnes of carbon dioxide or its equivalent weight in methane, nitrous oxide and the other gases that trap heat in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.
It's 66 million tonnes, or almost nine per cent, lower than 2019. That's about what is produced by 20 million passenger vehicles over the course of a year, or approximately the emissions produced by eight in 10 of the passenger vehicles on Canadian roads.
“Canada is moving in the right direction,” Guilbeault said.
There is still a huge distance to go to meet Canada's new target to cut emissions to no more than 60 per cent of what they were in 2005 by 2030.
Some Chart: Reads
Canadian GHG emissions grew by 26% from 1990 to 2012. However, as shown in Figure 1-4, this growth has stagnated since 2003.
Figures 1-5 and 1-6 demonstrate that although Canada is not a major emitter compared to China and the United States, it is among the countries with the highest emissions per capita, ahead of the United States and the European Union, among others.
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