Our goal recently has been to visit indicators influencing climate change and their reporting processes over a 9-month period and a 3-year period for trends and any progress.
Statistics Canada is responsible to Parliament through the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Industry. This open data, released under the Statistics Canada Open License is derived through compulsory surveys and administrative sources, as aggregated data to comply with the Statistics Act. The Consolidated Energy Statistics table including crude oil and natural gas data is the focus of this post with national-level monthly estimates of supply and demand for both primary and secondary energy sources by fuel type (presented in terajoules). Several agencies routinely monitor this data.
Consolidated energy data includes primary (coal, crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids, primary electricity, and renewable fuels) and secondary (coke, refined petroleum products, secondary electricity, and thermal) energy sources by fuel type.
Canada has made limited progress in meeting its Paris Agreement goal of reducing GGEs by 40-45% below 2005 levels by 2030 (upgraded 2021). In 2020, GGEs dropped to 672 Mt CO2 eq. during pandemic lockdowns from 730 Mt CO2 eq in 2019. In 2020, the oil and gas sector was still the largest GGE emitter in Canada, accounting for 27% or 179 Mt CO2 eq. Between 1990 and 2020, the sector’s emissions increased by 74% thus the importance to monitor trends to reach emissions targets of at least a 40% reduction by 2030 or 443 Mt CO2 eq.
To view a description of data sources visit:
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=2510007901
Data trends over the last 9 months and 3 years.
As a note, the government explains different fuels emit different amounts of CO2 in relation to the energy produced when burned. To analyze emissions across fuels, the CO2 emitted per unit of energy output or heat content is measured from tables identifying energy density or volume of fuel and amount of energy and CO2 emissions produced during combustion for a wide variety of fuels. The below figure only represents production.
Primary energy production in July 2022 was 2.007 million terajoules (TJ) similar to 2.003 in March and up slightly from 1.933 million TJ from last November. Over this 9-month period, crude oil prices, various refined petroleum products, and natural gas continued to rise, coinciding with Russia’s Ukraine invasion and subsequent global sanctions banning Russian oil imports. Global demand for energy products continued to rebound as COVID-19 restrictions eased. Secondary energy production was similar in July with 443,586 TJ compared to 437,430 in March and 445036 from November 2021 with some variances in production.
For example,
| Natural gas | 674,407 TJ Nov 2021 | 702,817 TJ Mar 2022 | 707,518 TJ July 2022 |
| Crude oil | 934,413 TJ Nov 2021 | 952,780 TJ Mar 2022 | 951,946 TJ July 2022 |
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR VALUE over 9 months DATE AVAILABLE
Consolidated energy use – Nov 2021 2.38 million terajoules Feb 2022 (Baseline)
Consolidated energy use – Mar 2022 2.44 million terajoules June 2022
Consolidated energy use – July 2022 2.45 million terajoules Oct 2022
Primary energy production in January 2020 was 2.024 million TJ compared to 2.007 million TJ in July 2022, secondary energy production was 470,502 TJ compared to 443,508 TJ in July 2022. These statistics were influenced by COVID-19 starting early 2020 and an oil price crisis. 2019 usage was attributed to higher fuel costs for transportation, winter heating and oil and gas extraction. Statistics Canada noted unlike the quick production and employment adjustments in all industries in response to the pandemic, reactions in the oil and gas extraction industry to oil pricing were relatively slow and moderate.
January 2020 compared to July 2022:
| Natural gas | 647,135 TJ Jan 2020 | 707,518 TJ July 2022 |
| Crude oil | 931,255 TJ Jan 2020 | 951,946 TJ July 2022 |
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR VALUE over 2.5 years DATE AVAILABLE Consolidated energy use – Jan 2020 2.495 million terajoules Oct 2022
Canada’s oil and gas extraction industry faces some challenges despite the recovery of oil prices, such as uncertain near-term energy demand because of the potential for new pandemic waves, cancellation of Keystone XL, carbon pricing, and increasing demand for clean energy, hoped to prevent capital spending in the industry from rebounding.
The IEA reports Canada’s oil and gas sector is still a major GGE contributor and needs to be addressed in overall emissions reduction policies. More work is needed to meet 2030 and 2050 targets, in part because reductions in intensity are partially offset by increased oil and gas production. The IEA asks countries to make a rapid shift away from fossil fuels.
This Post was submitted by Climate Scorecard Canada Country Manager Diane Szoller