Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Alberta Tar Sands GHG emissions to double by 2020

As bad as Alberta's GHG emissions are today, at about 5x the Canadian per capita average, the worst is yet to come.

According to Alberta government projections, GHG emissions from the Tar Sands alone will rise from a level of about 65 million tons of co2 equivalent in 2010 to about 130 million tons (megatons) per year by 2020.

For sake of comparison, 65 megatons is approximately equal to the total 2006 emissions of the province of British Columbia and approximately 80% of the current GHG emissions of the province of Quebec.

Alberta's total GHG emissions are projected to increase from approximately 236 megatons in 2006 to 270 in 2010, 290 in 2015 and 310 in 2020.

Total Alberta GHG emissions (millions of tons)

1990 - 172
1995 - 195
2000 - 210
2006 - 236
2010 - 270
2015 - 290
2020 - 310

Alberta Tar Sands Greenhouse Gas & co2 emissions

1990 - n/a
1995 - n/a
2000 - 20
2005 - 25
2010 - 65
2015 - 112
2020 - 130

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this information. Why aren't Canadians paying more attention to this issue? It seems like there is little dialog about this issue but everyone is geared up for hockey.