Provincial Inventory of greenhouse gas emissions

The Provincial Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Provincial Inventory) reports province-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals and is published every year, covering emissions from 1990 onwards. The Provincial Inventory covers all emissions included in B.C.'s legislated economy-wide and sectoral emissions reduction targets. For information purposes only, the Provincial Inventory also lists other land use emissions that are mainly due to natural causes largely outside of human control (for example, forest growth and decay, and wildfires).

B.C.'s Provincial Inventory is largely based on the National Inventory Report (NIR) produced by the federal government, which includes emissions data that is roughly two years old.

Current Provincial Inventory

The latest GHG data for B.C. is for 2021 based on the NIR published in April 2023. in 2021, B.C.'s gross GHG emissions, as reported in the 1990-2021 Provincial Inventory (XLSX, 317KB), were 62.0 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO₂e). This is a decrease of 1.8 MtCO₂e (-3 percent) from 63.8 MtCO₂e in 2007, the baseline year for our emissions reduction and sectoral targets.

Net emissions in 2021, after including 1.1 MtCO₂e of carbon sequestration by forest management offset projects not covered in the Provincial Inventory, were 60.9 MtCO₂e.

For projections of future emissions, see B.C.'s Provincial Forecast of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Supporting Metrics.