First Phase of Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting

In order to support its international obligations and domestic climate change policy objectives, the Government of Canada is committed to ensuring it is able to measure, track and report progress on the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG).

As a significant step toward meeting this commitment, the Government of Canada has announced the first phase of mandatory reporting of GHG emissions. The first phase focuses on a limited number of emitters and basic reporting requirements, and lays the foundation for the development of a harmonized and efficient, domestic mandatory reporting system for GHG emissions. Initial reports of GHG emissions for 2004 will be due in June, 2005.

The Government of Canada has been working with provincial and territorial governments to develop this GHG reporting system. It is being designed to:

• support the federal Large Final Emitters system;
  
  
• meet provincial and territorial legislative and other reporting requirements for GHG emissions and related information;
  
  
• increase the level of detail of the National GHG Inventory; and
  
  
• provide Canadians with information on GHG emissions

The federal, provincial and territorial governments recognize the need for a harmonized GHG reporting system. For example, Ontario already has a mandatory reporting system and Alberta is expected to introduce a mandatory system soon. The federal, provincial and territorial governments are collaborating in defining the process by which a single domestic mandatory GHG reporting system can be developed that will meet the GHG reporting needs of all jurisdictions and minimize reporting burden for both Canadian industry and government.

A federal, provincial and territorial steering committee, reporting to a board of deputy ministers, will coordinate the development of the reporting system. The steering committee will receive advice from a stakeholder advisory committee to ensure timely and meaningful involvement of stakeholders in the design and development of the reporting system.

Initial consultations on mandatory GHG reporting began in 2002, led by Environment Canada and engaging a wide range of stakeholders. In the fall of 2003, two national workshops were organized by Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Alberta Environment and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment to pursue approaches to a harmonized, single-window reporting system with stakeholders. These consultations strongly underscored a broad consensus that federal, provincial and territorial governments should be working in partnership to develop a single-window, domestic reporting system that is efficient and well-harmonized. These consultations also confirmed that implementing the reporting system in orderly phases will help to ensure that a fully developed and tested system is in place by the start of the first Kyoto Protocol commitment period (2008-2012).

Stakeholders were particularly interested in the choice of the “reporting vehicle,” which will be responsible for collecting and facilitating access to this information for authorized users.

As proposed by stakeholders, a multi-stakeholder working group developed criteria that were used to assess a number of possible reporting vehicles. On the basis of this process, Statistics Canada was selected as the reporting vehicle. This will allow Statistics Canada to integrate GHG reporting with reporting on fuel use and production. This, in turn, will help the government follow through on the goal of single-window reporting that minimizes duplication and reporting burden on industry and governments alike.

The choice of Statistics Canada leverages the considerable expertise, capacity and reputation of Canada’s national statistical agency to minimize response burden while providing superior standards of data quality and security.

The initial implementation phase will lay the foundation for the expansion and refinement of a domestic, mandatory GHG reporting system over the next several years, beginning with the following limited scope for 2004:

• Reporting will be mandatory and national in scope, cover initially only the largest emitters (i.e., only facilities emitting 100 kilotonnes or more of CO2 equivalent annually), be limited to reporting total emissions for each of the six GHGs named under the Kyoto Protocol, and entail public disclosure of reports on facility-level emissions.
  
  
• Facility-level reports for three specific GHGs (CO2, methane and N2O) will be further broken down by four sources, namely stationary fuel combustion, industrial process, fugitive emissions and “other.”
  
  
• Subsequent changes and refinements to the reporting requirements (i.e., for 2005 and later) will be preceded by further consultations with stakeholders.
  
  
• GHG emission reports for 2004 will be due on June 1, 2005.

The 100Kt reporting threshold is expected to apply to approximately 250-300 facilities across Canada, in all industrial sectors. Major industrial facilities that produce electricity, heat or steam on-site using fossil fuels are those that would typically emit more than 100 kt of greenhouse gases per year. These could include certain power generation facilities, integrated steel mills, facilities involved in smelting and refining metals, petroleum refineries and chemicals production.

The authority used for mandatory reporting of GHG emissions is the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA 1999), the only legislative instrument currently available that enables a mandatory GHG emission reporting system to be initiated in 2004.

In the case of GHG emissions reporting, Statistics Canada constitutes a highly reliable and cost-effective vehicle for reporting, since it has a well-developed collection infrastructure and is already engaged in collecting fuel use and business production data. Furthermore, Statistics Canada has the authority in its legislation to collect this information for statistical purposes pursuant to the Statistics Act and on behalf of another organization, where that organization has the authority to collect the information and to compel response. The data will be available in a timely fashion to authorized users such as federal departments and provincial/territorial authorities, whether directly from Statistics Canada where permissible by law, or through Environment Canada under authority of the Minister of the Environment, as provided through CEPA.

The process for development of the domestic GHG reporting system is indicative of the Government of Canada’s commitment, stated in the Speech from the Throne, to work in partnership with the provincial and territorial governments, as well as industry and other stakeholders to meet Canada's climate change commitments. Mandatory reporting of GHG emissions also contributes to meeting the Government’s commitment to incorporate key environmental indicators, such as emissions reductions, in its decision making, and supports Canada’s international obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

For more information on the reporting vehicle selection process, please visit :
www.nrcan-rncan.gc.ca/lfeg-ggef/English/reportingvehicle/

For more information, on the Large Final Emitter System, please visit:
www.nrcan-rncan.gc.ca/lfeg-ggef

For more information on the Government of Canada's action on climate change, please visit: www.climatechange.gc.ca

For more information on the Fall, 2003, National Workshops on Reporting, please visit: www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/ghg/2003WorkShop/2003workshop_e.cfm

For more information on how Canada monitors, analyzes and reports on GHG emissions, please visit: www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/ghg