CANADA: April 23, 2008


VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Canada's greenhouse gas emissions increased by 25 percent from 1990 to 2005, the highest amount of any G8 nation, according to government figures released on Tuesday.


Canada has only about 0.5 percent of the world's population but contributes about 2 percent of global emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide that are linked to climate change, according to Statistics Canada.

Energy use for transportation and oil and gas production in areas such as Alberta's oil sands were largely responsible for the rise, which would have been worse had it not been for increased industrial efficiency, the report said.

Canada's population also increased by about 16 percent over the same period, so on a per-capita basis the country's greenhouse gasses were up only about 8 percent. The economy also grew by about 30 percent in the period.

Canada's former Liberal government signed the Kyoto Protocol that pledged to reduce emissions at least 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012, but the current Conservative government has said it cannot honour that agreement.

The government has set a net target of reducing emissions by 20 percent below 2006 levels by 2020, but critics have said the rules will actually allow major polluters to release more greenhouse gases in the short-term.

Human activity in Canada released the equivalent of 747 mega tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2005, compared with 596 mega tonnes in 1990, according to Statistics Canada.

Several provinces have said they will take a more aggressive approach than the federal government to address the issue of climate change. British Columbia announced last year it would cut greenhouse gas emissions 33 percent by 2020.

Reporting Allan Dowd, editing by Rob Wilson


REUTERS NEWS SERVICE