FUREY: The COP26 crowd should know that Canadians’ emissions are declining

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As usual, there was a lot of heated rhetoric going around at the recently concluded Glasgow COP26 climate summit.

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Some of the most striking statements came from none other than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who called for both a global carbon tax and a strict cap on emissions from Canada’s oil and gas sector.

Trudeau’s remarks generated many headlines both at home and abroad. You know how to make news, that’s for sure.

However, it would have been nice if he had also taken the opportunity to use the podium at COP26 to offer the world, and summit protesters like Greta Thunberg, a snapshot of what the actual figures tell us about the state of emissions from Canada.

Because while you wouldn’t know it from the way everyone talks, Canadians’ emissions are actually declining. Much.

This information comes from nothing less than the federal government’s own annual energy reports.

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“Since 2000, there has been a decoupling between the growth of Canada’s economy and GHG emissions, in large part due to improvements in technology, regulations and practices and more efficient equipment,” explains the 2021 edition of the government’s Energy Fact Book.

If you look at government-produced charts showing annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, it’s more or less a slightly jagged line moving horizontally. There are ups and downs, but we are pretty much where we were 20 years ago.

“Canada’s total GHG emissions in 2019 were 730 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO 2 eq), a slight increase of 728 Mt CO 2 eq in 2018 ”, explain the feds.

That figure may represent a slight increase. But it’s not like there’s a similar slight increase every year. In fact, the 2006 figure was exactly the same: 730 megatons. That means that after 15 years, Canada’s emissions have remained static.

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The way this translates into a decrease in emissions is that this number has remained stable even as Canada’s population has increased significantly. The Energy Data Book explains that Canada’s emissions have been reduced by 20% per capita over the past 20 years.

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That’s quite a lot and it would be nice if the word got out more. The fact that emissions in Canada are not out of control serves as a sober brake on the most extreme rhetoric we hear about an impending climate crisis. It should also get more people to reconsider whether we really need to increase the current carbon tax and add a second overlay carbon tax, which is what will happen with the implementation of the Clean Fuel Standard tax next year.

So where should the plan advance? The government’s energy data book already shows us the way. Better technology and greater efficiency is what has gotten us where we are and that will only continue.

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“Canadian industry spent about $ 1.5 billion on energy R&D in 2017,” the report explains, and that $ 500 million of that was on clean energy and green initiatives. (This count does not include taxpayer money that the government funneled into such projects.)

The private sector is in it, of its own accord. And they would still be there regardless of how many cocktails an activist drank at COP26.

There are those who want you to believe that the only initiatives that can generate progress in the green sector are grandiose proclamations by politicians and NGOs in places like COP26.

But the truth is, whatever the crowd did over the last two weeks in Glasgow, it was mostly a red herring. If you want real results, the numbers to date tell us to look at private innovation over public policy.

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