Fall in emissions first since pandemic

Building, electricity sectors led national decrease while oilsands doubled amount of pollution

- MARCO CHOWN OVED

Canada’s national carbon emissions have recorded their first post-pandemic drop, according to an early estimate of 2023 emissions put out by the Canadian Climate Institute.

While greenhouse gas emissions have been trending slightly downward since the 2005 base year — and are now eight per cent lower — much of that drop occurred when the economy shut down for months on end during the 2020 COVID lockdowns. Emissions since then have rebounded, trending upward, until now.

“There was modest progress in 2023, but there are big sectoral differences and we need to accelerate momentum” said Dave Sawyer, principal economist with that Canadian Climate Institute (CCI).

Emissions fell 0.8 per cent between 2022 and 2023, the publicly funded institute found, led by reductions in the electricity and buildings sectors. These gains were partially cancelled out by an increase in the oil and gas industry, which now accounts for nearly a third of all emissions nationwide.