Canada is Increasingly One of the World's Worst GHG Emitters

Although Canada has a population of only 30 million people, it is one of the world's worst greenhouse gas emitters. Sadly, under the leadership of Stephen Harper's Conservative government this trend is only getting worse.

According to 2008 data collected by the CDIAC for the UN, Canada is the seventh largest emitter of GHGs in the world. The data only considers carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacture, but not emissions from land use such as deforestation. (These numbers would be much worse if deforestation were included).

According to a World Resources Institute (WRI) list of countries ranked by greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions per capita, Canada has higher emissions per capita than the United States and far greater emissions per capita than China. Canada's emissions per capita data indicate that the country is the 12th largest emitter in the world.

Canada is a world leading emitter of GHG and a comparison of the 2008 and 2010 data indicate significant increases. The 2008 EPI ranked 149 countries on 25 indicators tracked across six established policy categories: Environmental Health, Air Pollution, Water Resources, Biodiversity and Habitat, Productive Natural Resources, and Climate Change. The 2008 EPI identifies broadly-accepted targets for environmental performance and measures how close each country comes to these goals. As a quantitative gauge of pollution control and natural resource management results.

In 2010, the EPI ranked 163 countries on 25 performance indicators tracked across ten policy categories covering both environmental public health and ecosystem vitality. These indicators provide a gauge at a national government scale of how close countries are to established environmental policy goals.

According to the 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) Canada ranks behind countries like Mexico and Romania.

In 2008 Canada ranked 12th with an EPI score of 86.6, in 2010 after three years under the Conservative government of Stephen Harper, the countrys ranking fell to 46th and their EPI score fell to 66.4.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Related Posts
Canada is a World Leader in GHG Emissions
WWF's Canadian Living Planet Report
The State of Canada's Environment
Canada Officially Withdraws from the Kyoto Protocol
Video: One South African Asks Why Canada is Silent on Climate Change
Canada is a Pariah at COP 17
The Costs of Canada's Failure to Act on Climate Change
Canada on Track to be a Dirty Energy Superpower
Canadian Federal Provincial Energy Conference on Resource Exploitation
Federal Provincial Energy Conference Sponsored by Big Oil
Canadian Conservatives Dirty Priorities
Canadian Conservatives Disregard for Canada's Environment
Video: The Alberta Tar Sands Dirty Oil
Lack of Canadian Co-ordination in Efforts to Reduce GHGs
Canadian Global Warming Denial from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
Canadian Government at Odds with the Public on Climate Change
Conservatives Ignore Canadians While Jeopardizing the Environment and the Economy
Canadian Conservative Government Rejects Kyoto
Canada's Government Opposes Kyoto and Hampers Progress at COP16
World Urges Canada to Do More to Manage Climate Change
Conservative Budget: No Green for Canada
The Impact of a Climate Change Deal on Canada

SHARE

Melili

• 
• 
• 
• 
•