Canadian GDP up, carbon pollution down for large emitters

(Toronto, Canada, December 16, 2009) Today, Corporate Knights Magazine released a summary of the changes in emissions levels from Canada’s top ten biggest greenhouse gas polluters.

From 2007 to 2008, the top ten polluters in Canada slashed their greenhouse gas emissions by 9.2 million tonnes, or nine per cent, while the economy (gross domestic product) grew by 0.5 per cent.

“While our government says that reducing emissions by 20 per cent over 15 years is a heavy lift, our companies are showing the art of the possible: how almost half that target can be pulled off in just one year,” said Toby Heaps, Editor of Corporate Knights, from the climate talks in Copenhagen.

Of the ten largest emitters, all but two managed to reduce their emissions from 2007 to 2008, according to freshly released data from Environment Canada compiled by Corporate Knights. Reasons for the declines included planned and unplanned production outages, lower provincial demand, and increased generation from non-carbon-intensive facilities (nuclear and hydro). The increase at the Boundary Dam facility was due to the completion of maintenance in 2007 and the plant coming back online.

The emissions from these top ten emitters still make up 12 per cent of Canada’s total 747 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Canada’s 350 large industrial facilities (required to report GHG emissions by the Federal Government) reduced overall emissions by 15.5 million tonnes or 5.8 per cent from 2007 to 2008.

The top ten GHG emitters in the 2010 Corporate Knights Carbon 50 by facility are as follows (ranked by size of emissions decrease):

The full results of the Carbon 50, including an analysis of the reasons for emissions reductions and the worst emitters by company, will be available at www.corporateknights.ca/carbon50 in February 2010.

-30-

To schedule interviews with Toby Heaps Editor of Corporate Knights, call Melissa Shin, Managing Editor at 416-203-4674 ext. 225 or e-mail melissa(at)corporateknights.ca.

About Corporate Knights
Founded in 2002, Corporate Knights Inc. is an independent Canadian-based media company focused on prompting and reinforcing sustainable development in Canada.

To download a version of the press release with a backgrounder on the reasons for each facility's decrease/increase in emissions, click here.