February 7, 2006

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Home > Sinks

Sinks

The Greenhouse Gas Division is responsible for monitoring and reporting both sources and sinks of greenhouse gases as part of Canada's commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In addition, particularly given the technical nature of the issue, as well as the GHG Division's past role in representing Canada at the international negotiations and co-chairing the Sinks Table of the National Climate Change process, put in place in 1998, the Greenhouse Gas Division is likely to continue to play a role in coordinating any future methodological work to develop and report on sinks.

The UNFCCC defines a sink as "any process, activity or mechanism which removes a greenhouse gas, an aerosol, or a precursor of a greenhouse gas from the atmosphere." The UNFCCC addresses all "anthropogenic emissions and removals". The term anthropogenic is not so easily applied to land-use (agriculture and forestry) and land-use change activities, that involve both natural and human-induced processes and that can have both a source and a sink term.

Because of the cyclical nature and varying timeframes involved in realizing the benefits from natural or biological systems, particularly forest systems, and because of the dominating influence of natural forests in countries such as ours, it is Canada's view that any legally binding instrument must treat land-use and land-use change activities, as well as sources and sinks, in a balanced manner.