As the new year approaches, expect a deluge of reminders of the Trudeau government and the environmental movement that Canada is now the highest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.
The federal government refers to this all the time as it tries to get Canadians into submission when it comes to quietly accepting carbon prices – which means higher consumer costs for almost everything to “save the planet.” As Canada’s national soccer teams head into the FIFA World Cup, Derek Van Diest is on the scene to talk about all the action. Expect insights and expert analysis in your inbox every day for every tournament, and every Thursday until the end of the season.
As the federal Department of the Environment put it in August, “in 2019, Canada was the highest GHG emitter per capita among the top 10 emitters with 19.6 tons of CO2 equivalent.” To improve the case, the feds helpfully included a chart of “per capita greenhouse gas emissions of the top 10 emitting countries and regions (in tons) of carbon dioxide equivalent per capita.” Canada is at the top, followed in descending order by the US, Russia, Iran, Japan, China, the European Union (27 countries), Brazil, Indonesia and India.
We can all save – Canadians are bad, wasteful and failing on climate change. Sorry, but this video failed to load. Outside of the real world, comparing Canada to other nations by selectively using per capita emissions as a metric is highly misleading, because Canada is the second largest and second coldest country in the world.
We also have a small population and natural resources such as oil and gas make up a large part of our economy. In that context, comparing our per capita emissions to countries in the European Union like Germany, for example, which is one-third the size of Ontario with twice the population of Canada, makes no sense. Ditto comparisons with the rest of the 27-nation European Union, given that its members are small in size compared to Canada and none of them are cold.
Our emissions are not the highest per capita in the world because everyone has an oil refinery in their backyard. Sorry, but this video failed to load. They are much higher per capita due to Canada’s size and climate, which has a direct impact on our enormous demand for fuel energy to transport people, goods and services across the country, to say nothing of the need for fossil fuels to fuel Canadians. at home in the winter.
Another thing to remember about statistics is that you get what you choose to measure. For example, when emissions are measured in square kilometers instead of per capita, Canada not only falls out of the top ten in the world, it drops to 140th place among the 215 countries and regions of the world identified by the United Nations when global data is reported in 2007.
When environmental consultants Sustainable Business Consulting looked at the same metric in 2019 using 2017 data, Canada was 129th out of 184 countries, and had the lowest emissions per square kilometer of any emitters. the top 10 in the world, save Brazil, including the US, Russia, Iran, Japan, China, Indonesia, India and all the members of the 27 countries of the European Union.
Canada’s emissions have also been declining as a percentage of global emissions — from 1.8% in 2005 to 1.5% in 2019 — which the federal government acknowledges. In fact, globally speaking, greenhouse gas emissions in developed countries, including Canada, have declined, compared to developing countries, where they continue to increase.
