Canada’s emissions plummeted during 1st year of COVID-19 pandemic

Canada's greenhouse gas emissions plummeted to their lowest level in almost three decades in 2020 as pandemic restrictions kept cars off the road and grounded airplanes.

Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions plummeted to their lowest level in almost three decades in 2020 as pandemic restrictions kept cars off the road and grounded airplanes for months on end.

But a new and more accurate way to count methane emissions from the oil and gas industry means Canada emitted more than previously thought over the last 25 years, dampening some of the better news in the emissions report published Thursday.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said in a written statement that overall the 2020 report is a good news day for the planet.

That year, Canada produced 672 million tonnes of carbon dioxide or its equivalent weight in methane, nitrous oxide and the other gases that trap heat in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.

It’s 66 million tonnes, or almost nine per cent, lower than 2019. That’s about what is produced by 20 million passenger vehicles over the course of a year, or approximately the emissions produced by eight in 10 of the passenger vehicles on Canadian roads.

“Canada is moving in the right direction,” Guilbeault said.

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There is still a huge distance to go to meet Canada’s new target to cut emissions to no more than 60 per cent of what they were in 2005 by 2030.