Canada

General energy system and GHG emissions

The Second National Communication provides a report on Canada's progress towards meeting all its commitments under the UNFCC. The Third National Communication has been available since the beginning of March 2002.

An overview of energy in Canada is given by the Canada Country Analysis Brief .

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies account for over half of world energy production and consumption.

The National Energy Board (the NEB or the Board) is an independent federal regulatory agency that was established in 1959. The Board regulates the following specific aspects of the energy industry:

the construction and operation of interprovincial and international pipelines;
pipeline traffic, tolls and tariffs;
the construction and operation of international and designated interprovincial power lines;
the export and import of natural gas;
the export of oil and electricity; and Frontier oil and gas activities

The Energy Council of Canada (ECC) is the Canadian Member Committee of the World Energy Council. With over 100 members from Canada's energy sector, we are a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the effectiveness of our national energy policy.
The Council seeks to forge a better understanding of energy issues among the public and private sectors and the country at large, through discussion and exchange of information on all forms and aspects of energy.
The affairs of the ECC are managed by a Board of Directors consisting of senior officers from Canada's leading energy corporations and organizations. Key activities include:

sponsoring periodic energy forums / conferences
documenting the status of, and prospects for, the Canadian energy industry
disseminating reports and information
contributing to the development of energy policy in Canada.
taking the lead in broadly based activities on urgent issues

The Natural Resources Canada, Energy Sector enhances the economic and environmental well-being of Canada by fostering the sustainable development and use of the nation's energy resources to meet the present and future needs of Canadians. It demonstrates a valued contribution to Canadian society and to be recognized for our expertise, our management practices and our service to clients. The report Energy in Canada 2000 examines the energy sector in Canada.

The Natural Resources Canada also installed a Climate change web-site providing information on research, data, climate change policies, and publications.

Inventory 1990-2000 provides an inventory and summary of trends in anthropogenic (human-induced) from sources and removals from sinks of greenhouse gases for Canada. It also discusses the methodologies used to estimate them.

General description of bioenergy systems

The Renewable Energy Strategy 1996 describes, first, the renewable energy community in Canada and, second, the context in which this strategy document has emerged. It is intended to provide a brief overview of the growing importance of renewable energy in our future energy mix.

Land use, land use change, and forestry

The Mission of the Canadian Forest Service is to promote the sustainable development of Canada's forests and competitiveness of the Canadian forest sector for the well-being of present and future generations of Canadians.

National policies and measures

The National Climate Change Process Web Site has been created to inform Canadians about how Canadian governments are responding to the challenge of climate change. For the past several years, Canada's federal, provincial and territorial governments have been working together with a wide range of stakeholders and experts, as part of the National Climate Change Process. The goal is to understand how Canada can best respond to climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to current and future impacts.
In October 2000, Joint Ministers of Energy and Environment publicly released the National Implementation Strategy on Climate Change and the First National Climate Change Business Plan under the Strategy. The release of these documents represents a coordinated Canadian response to climate change with a focus on reducing national GHG emissions and developing strategies to adapt to a changing environment. It also reflects a fundamental agreement among federal, provincial, and territorial governments about the need to act now and to continue working collectively.

Pilot Trading Programs

Two joint private-public emissions credit trading pilot programmes have been implemented in Canada to evaluate emissions trading as a cost-effective way for industry to reduce emissions of various pollutants. The Ontario Pilot Emissions Trading (PERT) program, a voluntary, industry-led, multi-stakeholder initiative, was established in 1996 and applied to GHGs and other air pollutants emitted in the Windsor - Quebec City corridor. Members received credits and recognition from the Ontario Ministry of Environment for emissions reduced over and above what was required by regulation. The Ministry of the Environment is proposing the use of an emissions reduction trading system to help industries reduce the release of contaminants that cause smog, acid rain, and other air pollution problems. The as demonstrated, that emissions reduction trading can be a cost effective approach to achieving emissions reduction beyond the basic regulatory requirements.
The Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Trading (GERT) Pilot, initiated in 1998 as a voluntary joint initiative between the federal government, provinces, industry, labour and environmental groups, reviews emissions reduction projects to ensure that credits generated for trades reflect additional, measurable and verifiable emissions reductions. GERT will be receiving projects for evaluation until December 2001 27.
Ministers agreed to direct officials to develop a detailed program design for cost-shared pilots that would by emission reductions in strategic areas, involving both a national approach as well as bilateral agreements with individual jurisdictions. For more information see Pilot for Emissions Removals, Reductions, and Learnings (PERRL).

Regional and local policies and measures

Implementation projects

ENFOR (ENergy from the FORest) was established in 1978 as part of a federal interdepartmental initiative to develop renewable energy sources. It is a contract research and development (R&D) program aimed at generating sufficient knowledge and technology to realize a marked increase in the contribution of forest biomass to Canada’s energy supply. Administered by the Canadian Forest Service, the ENFOR program deals with biomass supply matters such as inventory, growth, harvesting, processing, transportation, environmental impacts, and socioeconomic impacts and constraints.

GGOCAD - The Greenhouse Gas Offset Cost Assessment and Decisionmaking Software System by Trexler and Associates, Inc. (TAA)
Trexler and Associates, Inc. (TAA) is an internationally recognized leader in the emerging field of climate change risk management and in identifying and implementing greenhouse gas emissions reduction and offset strategies. TAA is one of just a few companies worldwide that specializes in climate change mitigation policies, technologies, and projects. TAA works with greenhouse gas emitters to assess their future regulatory and financial exposure under alternative policy regimes and to identify market opportunities arising out of the public's growing concern over climate change. TAA also works with companies, governments, nongovernmental organizations, and project developers to promote environmentally sound, technically viable, and cost-effective climate change mitigation measures.

Forest 2020/Greencover
FYI - the following provides some information on the new Canadian afforestation demo program.

The Government of Canada wants to work with the financial sector to invest in the planting of fast-growing trees on private land, and is contributing to a program to demonstrate the effectiveness of this strategy. The Government of Canada will contribute $20 million to Forest 2020/Greencover, a program that will demonstrate the possible contribution of fast-growing tree plantations to absorbing CO2, and develop options to channel investments in additional plantations.

Forest 2020/Greencover will establish a series of fast-growing tree plantation demonstrations, mainly on private lands across Canada to demonstrate that trees, primarily fast-growing hardwood species, can help offset GHG emissions. Monitoring the best combination of seedlings, soils and climate will also be an opportunity to work with private industry to assess the economic and technical feasibility of using private lands to grow and harvest fast-growing plantations. This could lay the foundation for the development of many such plantations and contribute to reaching our climate change targets.

Co-benefits include demonstrating environmental stewardship, promoting innovation and creating new business opportunities in Aboriginal and rural communities. Forest 2020/Greencover will build on previous work to assess the feasibility of afforestation and take into account the portion of the Greencover Initiative aimed at expanding the amount of land in Canada covered by perennial forage and trees.

Research programs

Climate change is a complex economic and environmental issue. Through Canada's National Climate Change Process (NCCP), federal, provincial and territorial governments, with the guidance of industry, environmental groups and many others, have built a National Implementation Strategy on Climate Change, and have agreed to the First National Climate Change Business Plan, which contains over 300 federal/provincial and territorial government actions and measures to address climate change.

The Government of Canada Action Plan 2000 on Climate Change puts Canada firmly on the path to meet its Kyoto commitment. When fully implemented, the package of practical, cost-effective measures will take Canada one-third of the way to its Kyoto target by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by about 65 megatonnes per year. Natural Resources Minister Ralph Goodale and Environment Minister David Anderson released the Plan today in Vancouver.

CleanAir Canada is an independent, not-for-profit organization committed to excellence in the development, operation and expanded use of local and global emission reduction market mechanisms in Canada. The multi-stakeholder membership is built on the volunteer efforts of a broad range of companies and organizations. Together, CleanAir Canada has developed the country's largest experienced-based knowledge centre for emission reduction market mechanisms.

The BIOCAP Canada Foundation, a national university research organization, is bringing together leading researchers and decision-makers from across the country to find biology-based solutions to the challenges of climate change.

Landfill Utilization

Emissions from landfills account for 26% of anthropogenic methane emissions in Canada, with over 25 megatonnes (Mt) of CO₂ being generated annually. 33 landfills have already shown initiative in capturing these harmful emissions, resulting in a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of 6 Mt per year. An example is the Clover Bar Landfill Gas to Energy project, established near Edmonton, which has 85 wells drilled to extract gas from a municipal waste site. Since the project’s inception, over 93 million M3 of landfill gas has been used to generate 208 Gigawatt hours of electricity up to 1997. Another example is the Jackman landfill site near Langley British Columbia, which uses landfill gas for heat during the winter and to enhance plant growth in an adjoining greenhouse in the summer.

More information at http://www.ec.gc.ca/nopp/lfg/en/index.cfm.