File this under: “Things You Can’t Put a Happy Face On” (subsection: “But I Told You So”)
Greenhouse gases growing faster than economy
PETER CALAMAI
SCIENCE REPORTER
[May 30 2005]OTTAWA—Canada is losing ground in the climate change battle, with new federal government figures revealing that greenhouse gas emissions grew faster than the economy in 2003, the first time this has happened since 1996.
The official estimates show emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases rising by 3 per cent between 2002 and 2003, almost double the year-over-year increase in gross domestic product of 1.7 per cent.
The increase took total greenhouse gas emissions up by 21 million tonnes to 740 million tonnes.
The government’s strategy to tackle climate change depends on annual greenhouse gas emissions going up more slowly than economic growth, supposedly from improved energy efficiency and energy conservation.
But the 2003 emissions, not yet generally released by the environment department, suggest that the strategy wasn’t working during the 12 months after Canada ratified the Kyoto Protocol in December 2002 and committed $1.7 billion to a climate change action plan.
“We hadn’t made any progress at all. We were actually going backwards,” said climate expert Gordon McBean, a former chief of Canada’s meteorological service who is now a University of Western Ontario professor.
The 2003 figures also mean Canada will probably have to revise its latest Kyoto plan, announced in April at a cost of $10 billion. Greenhouse gas emissions are growing faster than the plan’s projections.
In a summary to be posted shortly on the environment department’s website, federal officials say that heavier home and office heating to cope with a “colder than average winter” was largely responsible for the increased “intensity” of greenhouse gas emissions in 2003. A colder winter was also cited in the 2002 summary, when emissions nonetheless grew less than the economy.
One climate expert said the 2003 result could mean Ottawa would have to spend even more on purchasing greenhouse gas credits from abroad to hit Canada’s Kyoto target of a six per cent reduction from 1990 emission levels.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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