Across Canada, provincial and local governments have achieved great things in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the Harper government has grabbed as much undeserved credit for that as possible.
Yet Harper and his slackjawed EnviroShill, Peter Kent, can't hide the
impacts of their bitumen-peddling policies, no matter how much credit they steal from others.
Canada's annual heat-trapping greenhouse gases continue to level off or
decline in most sectors of the economy, outside of Alberta's oilpatch,
says the latest annual inventory report submitted by the Harper
government to the United Nations.
The government report, prepared by Environment Canada, noted the
country's average temperatures were 1.5 degrees C above average in 2011,
which makes it more likely to observe impacts such as rising sea levels
and increasing extreme weather events that could intensify in the
future.
"In some regions, the impacts could be devastating, while other regions could benefit from climate change," the report said.
But oilsands companies exploiting Alberta's natural bitumen deposits,
which require large amounts of energy and water to extract heavy oil,
continue to be the fastest growing source of greenhouse gases in the
country, standing in the way of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's target
to lower annual emissions by 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020. A
report released by Environment Canada in August estimated Canada was on
pace to be about 20 per cent above that target in 2020.
The oilsands sector also now represents about eight per cent of Canada's overall annual emissions.
The
report said Canada had the largest growth in emissions among G8
countries over the past two decades. It is also among the top sources of
greenhouse gases in the world, representing about two per cent of
global emissions, and one of the highest sources of greenhouse gases per
person.
Oilsands
industrial activities have reduced emissions per barrel of oil produced
by about 26 per cent since 1990 because of new technologies, as well as
exporting some emissions to the U.S. for some refining and upgrading
activities.
Other figures from the report show that Alberta's
industrial facilities are responsible for 48 per cent of all industrial
emissions in the country in 2011, followed by Ontario at 19 per cent,
Saskatchewan at nine per cent and Quebec at eight per cent.
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