Ontario's carbon emissions jump back to pre-pandemic levels

New figures show Ontario's greenhouse gas emissions jumped for a second straight year, following a pandemic-induced plunge, and have risen back to the level they were before Premier Doug Ford's government came to power. 

The figures come from the annual national inventory of emissions, which reveals sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases across all provinces and all sectors, including industry, transportation and buildings.    

The report shows Ontario produced 157 megatonnes of carbon emissions in 2022. That's up 5.7 per cent from 2020, when pandemic restrictions triggered a sharp drop in commuting, and Ontario's greenhouse gas emissions dropped to the lowest level since tracking began in 1990. 

Gideon Forman, climate change  and transportation policy analyst for the David Suzuki Foundation, calls the increase worrisome.   

"Right at the very moment when we're supposed to be reducing our emissions, they're going up in Ontario, and they're going up by millions of tonnes of carbon pollution," Forman said in an interview. 

Ontario's 2022 emissions were nearly equivalent to the province's output of 158 megatonnes in 2017. That was the first year of the previous Liberal government's cap and trade program, which Ford's Progressive Conservatives scrapped just days after taking office.  

The Ford government's current target is to reduce Ontario's annual emissions to 144 megatonnes by 2030.

"If Ontario continues on the trajectory it's currently on, we're not going to make our 2030 targets," said Forman. 

CBC News asked for an interview Thursday with Environment Minister Andrea Khanjin, but officials said she was not available.

In an email, Khanjin's spokesperson Corey Michaels said the government's plan to reduce emissions is working. 

"We'll continue building on this success by making Ontario a global leader in electric vehicles and investing in clean steel production, which will reduce emissions by the same amount as taking two million cars off the road," Michaels said.

The steel industry — with hundreds of millions of dollars in support from the federal and provincial governments — is aiming to switch from coal-fired to electric-powered furnaces, a move that is expected to be Ontario's biggest source of emission reductions this decade.  

The report lists emissions from every major industrial facility in the country, and it shows the three biggest emitters in Ontario are steel plants. 

ArcelorMittal Dofasco in Hamilton, Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie and Stelco Inc.'s Lake Erie plant in Haldimand County accounted for 11.6 megatonnes of emissions collectively in 2022, the report showed.