February 7, 2006

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About the GHG Division

Environment Canada's Greenhouse Gas Division is Canada's central agency responsible for Canada’s National System for monitoring, analyzing and reporting emissions and removals of greenhouse gases, in accordance with the requirements of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the Kyoto Protocol

One key function of the division is the annual development and submission of Canada's National Inventory Report, a mandatory obligation upon which compliance with our Kyoto Protocol target will be assessed. The report documents emissions and removals of GHGs in Canada , including an analysis of emission trends, factors affecting those trends, and detailed descriptions of the methods, models and procedures used to develop and verify the data. The report is produced annually according to the requirements of the UNFCCC.

The Greenhouse Gas Division is also responsible for the tracking of facility level GHG emissions through a mandatory reporting system. The one window system is designed to support the Large Final Emitters (LFE) system, the national inventory, public information dissemination and provincial information needs. The national inventory and facility reporting systems are key components of the Climate Change Plan, and are designed to ensure that all emissions reductions from sources and removal enhancements by sinks that occur in Canada are accounted for.

The division’s scientific and engineering expertise is also critical in supporting the development of quantification protocols for the LFEs, in facilitating the accreditation of verifiers for the offsets system, in developing new tools and models to estimate and track emissions and removals trends, in providing experts for UN Review Teams, in supporting the international negotiations, and in undertaking research on sources and sinks, including as lead authors and reviewers for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Through its outreach services, the division provides greenhouse gas related quantification, verification and reporting guidance and data and analysis required for the National GHG Indicator.

The national system and the mandatory reporting regime, along with fulfilling international obligations, are also designed to provide accurate information for ascertaining compliance and supporting decision making. Improvements to data support competitiveness and environmental sustainability by providing better information for decision making, providing information to meet a variety of domestic and international requirements, supporting education, contributing to the development of applied solutions, utilizing science and technology and supporting performance promotion through the development of research based guidance on source/sink mitigation and sink enhancement.