Canadian mining industry improves emissions performance

The latest statistics on energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions show that the Canadian mining industry is improving its emissions performance.

Data in a report released by the Canadian Industrial Energy End-Use Data and Analysis Centre (CIEEDAC), an independent authority on industrial climate change performance, reveal that energy consumption in the combined metal mining (less iron ore) and non-ferrous metal smelting and refining sector is 13.5% below 1990 levels, down 1.2% from 1997.

Total GHG emissions, which include both direct and indirect emissions, are 16.4% below 1990 levels, dropping 8.8% over the previous year. Of note, this improvement took place despite an increase in metal ore production between 1997 and 1998.

“We are pleased with our progress to date,” says Gordon Peeling, president and chief executive officer of the Mining Association of Canada (MAC). “The mining industry’s commitment to improve its use of energy and reduce its GHG emissions, as outlined in the MAC’s policy paper Global Climate Change — Taking Action, is beginning to pay off.”

A significant decline in the use of electricity (which reduced indirect emissions) and a decline in fossil fuel consumption (which reduced direct emissions) have contributed to the mining industry’s progress.

Since 1990, the mining industry has improved its energy efficiency. The non-ferrous metal smelting and refining sector, for example, has improved its energy efficiency performance by 22.4% over the period 1990-1998, while reducing GHG emissions per unit of output by almost 40%.

In December 1997, Canada, together with more than 160 countries, met in Kyoto, Japan, to consider follow-up action to a 1992 United Nations convention on climate change. At that meeting, industrialized countries set targets to reduce their GHG emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. Canada’s target is to reduce GHGs to 6% below 1990 levels during the period 2008-2012.