Overview

Industrial emissions in the GTHA reached 7.8 MtCO2eq in 2022, up nearly 5% from the previous year. Pandemic-related reductions have been largely eroded, with emissions nearly at 2019 levels.

Roughly 70% of the GTHA’s industrial emissions are generated from steel and cement production at plants located in Hamilton, Durham, and Peel.

Since the output of these plants serves the entire GTHA and beyond, reducing the carbon intensity of these and other high-emitting processes is a shared priority, which will be critical to decarbonizing this sector and achieving climate targets.

Industrial emissions were sourced from Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), which requires any facility releasing more than 10 ktCO2eq per year to annually report their emissions.

While this program is invaluable for tracking emission trends across Canada’s largest industrial plants, combined emissions from smaller facilities not subject to this reporting mandate (i.e., less than 10 ktCO2eq) are likely still significant.

Historical industrial emissions have been updated and are slightly lower than those reported in previous releases.

Steps have been taken to eliminate any double counting of natural gas and electricity emissions from industrial facilities, which are already counted within the buildings sector. TAF's downloadable methodology file provides more information on this process.

Since the 2022 GHGRP was not yet available at the time of this inventory, 2022 industrial emissions have been projected using proxies related to Ontario’s cement manufacturing jobs, total manufacturing jobs, and GTHA steel production estimates. Numbers will be updated once the 2022 GHGRP is released.