Follow-up petition on the quantification of Canada’s total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from exported fossil fuels—Questions about responses to petition 390B

Petition: 390C

Issue(s): Climate change; Governance; Natural resources

Petitioner(s): A Canadian organization

Petitioner location(s): Toronto,  Ontario

Date received: 24 August 2021

Status: Completed—Response(s) to petition received

Summary: This petition is a follow‑up to petition 390B regarding the quantification of Canada’s fossil fuel exports from 2016 to 2020 and the amount of carbon dioxide emissions derived from the combustion of these fossil fuels during this period. The current petition seeks clarification around the calculation of Canada’s coal exports for the 2016‑20 period. It maintains that there are inconsistences and discrepancies between the data that ministers provided in their responses to petition 390B and the publicly available data on the same subject matter.

In particular, the current petition states that the statistics about the exportation of thermal coal that the ministers provided in response to questions in petition 390B are 3 to 15 times lower than those published by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority and the Prince Rupert Port Authority. The petition asks for an explanation on the differences between the reported export totals from the ministers and the published data from the port authorities. It asks ministers to confirm the total amount of thermal coal exports and to provide the sources and methodology used to calculate their answers. In addition, it seeks confirmation that the export data provided for other fossil fuels in the responses to petition 390B is correct and requests a projected level of coal exports for 2025 and 2030.

The petition also seeks clarity on the emission estimates for the combustion of thermal coal and other fossil fuels provided in a ministerial response to petition 390B. It requests confirmation on whether these totals refer only to carbon dioxide or whether they also include methane and nitrous oxide emissions. The petition also asks for an updated table on greenhouse gas emissions produced by the combustion of fossil fuels exported from 2016 to 2020 to incorporate corrections to any inaccuracies in the responses to petition 390B about the total of greenhouse gas emissions.

Federal departments/organizations responsible for reply: Environment and Climate Change Canada; Natural Resources Canada; Transport Canada