Hot off the press – and in the air

Befitting its status as our energy engine, Alberta continues to account for the country’s largest output of greenhouse gases (GHG). The latest numbers, courtesy of Statistics Canada and Environment Canada, show Alberta was responsible for 114,408,432 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2007.

Tallied up from 106 facilities required to report GHGs under the auspices of the federal Facility Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting Program, Alberta’s output represented 41% of the country’s overall total of 278,093,770 tonnes emitted by 350 facilities. That was statistically in line with Canada’s annual output since 2003 as most jurisdictions showed no significant change over the four years covered in the latest summary. However, Alberta and Saskatchewan emissions were up, mainly due to an increased number of facilities supplying data.

However, the dubious distinction of being the largest single-point source of GHGs in 2007 went to Ontario Hydro’s coal-fired Nanticoke generating station on the shore of Lake Erie — 17,887,649 tonnes of CO2e, which was mostly CO2 with lesser amounts of methane (NH4) and nitrous oxide (NO2).

As usual, expressed in tonnes of CO2e, the latest year’s total was dominated by 262,733,182 tonnes of CO2, 8,355,805 of CH4, 4,337,760 of N20, 30,739 of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), 2,301,959 of perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and 344,325 of sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).

Ontario reported the second-highest CO2e total in 2007, 73,910,625 tonnes with the other jurisdictions tonnages as follows: Quebec, 23,373,453; Saskatchewan, 22,929,832; British Columbia, 12,702,944; Nova Scotia, 11,414,536; New Brunswick, 10,902,038; Newfoundland & Labrador, 5,427,219; Manitoba, 2,401,753; Northwest Territories, 520,970; and Prince Edward Island, 101,967.

Although Alberta emitted the most CO2, Ontario was responsible for the greatest amounts of CH4, N20, HFCs AND SF6 while Quebec topped the PFC hit list.

While Nanticoke topped the single-point source rankings, Syncrude Canada’s Mildred Lake and Aurora North plants in Fort McMurray, Alta. were in second place with a combined 14,936,539 tonnes, and Epcor Power Generation’s coal-fired Genesee plant in Warburg, Alta. was third at 9,481,997 tonnes.

The utilities sector, No. 21 as defined by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code, accounted for 44% of the 2007 GHG output in Canada compared with 35% by the manufacturing sector (NAICS 31-33), 20% by the mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction sector (NAICS 21) and the remaining 5% by a variety of smaller sources.

Within NAICS 21, oil and gas extraction companies as a subsector accounted for 89%, metal ore mining for six per cent, coal mining for 3% and non-metallic mining and quarrying for 2%. 

The full report is available at Environment Canada.