To spotlight one of the major contributors to climate change, we've rounded up a series of quick facts about Canada, the world, and their respective experiences greenhouse gas emissions. The numbers will amaze you.
- Canada's emissions surge 27 per cent from 1990 to 2004
- Canada produced 599 megatonnes of CO2 in 1990
- The country's Kyoto target is 563 Mt
- Canada emitted 758 Mt of emissions in 2004
Compare Canada's increase during that time to ...
- The G7 countries average of 12.1 per cent
- The EU-15's of only about three per cent
- The United States at 13.7 per cent
Critics place the blame for Canada's record on ...
- A surge in carbon energy exports, particularly oil and gas
- Loss of nuclear generating capacity in Ontario in the mid-1990s and its replacement with coal-generated electricity
- A lack of political will to force action on cutting emissions
How much GHG emissions have climbed globally ...
- Between 1970 and 2004, global greenhouse gas emissions have risen by 70 per cent. If nothing is done, they will rise by another 25 to 90 per cent over the next 25 years
- The single biggest area of growth has come from the energy supply sector, which is up 145 per cent.
- This overall rise has happened despite a 33 per cent rise in energy efficiency, which means the amount of energy going into a given unit of power output has fallen
What it would take to stabilize GHGs the atmosphere ...
- The current C02 concentration in the atmosphere is about 380 parts per million, but when one adds in the effect of other greenhouse gases, that number rises to 425 ppm
- Many researchers think a safe target for GHG emissions would be a C02 equivalent level of 450 ppm
- The IPCC says a level of 445 to 490 ppm would keep the global temperature rise to 2.0 to 2.8 degrees
Why the experts are worried we'll go into the danger zone ...
- Climate scientists say that carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas driving climate change, accumulates and lingers in the atmosphere for a century or more
- The 1997 Kyoto Protocol set a global target of a five per cent cut in GHG emissions below the 1990 baseline by 2012, which some countries, like Canada, aren't likely to reach
- A generally accepted target is that GHG emissions must fall to at least 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050 to keep the rise below two degrees
How the top dog emitter, the United States, is impacting the fight ...
- The U.S. is currently the world's biggest total emitter of greenhouse gases. Although it only has five per cent of the world's population, the U.S. accounts for about 25 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas output
- On a per capita basis, the U.S. is one of the world's biggest per capita emitters of GHGs, surpassed only by the tiny country of Luxembourg. Canada and Australia, the world's biggest coal exporter, round out the top four
- In 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush announced his administration would not seek ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. He complained that cutting U.S. emissions by seven per cent below 1990 levels would hurt his country's economy
How the waking giant, China, is quickly closing in on number one ...
- While Canada and the U.S. produced about five to six times more carbon dioxide per capita than China did in 2003, China has been rapidly narrowing the gap
- About 80 per cent of China's electricity comes from coal -- more than twice the world average. To keep up with the demand created by its surging economy, a new coal-fired power plant opens every week to 10 days
- The world's most populous country, China, had been expected to surpass the U.S. as the biggest total GHG emitter in 2010, but it will do so late this year
