Total Industry Emissions, 2015-2021

Representing about a fifth of the region’s total emissions, industrial emissions in the GTHA have been relatively steady over the last seven years. Emissions in 2021 have started approaching pre-pandemic levels, a trend likely to continue in 2022.

Over two-thirds of GTHA industrial emissions come from carbon-intensive cement and steel manufacturing. Reducing these two sectors’ carbon intensity is crucial to lowering regional industrial emissions. Although the GTHA’s industrial emissions are heavily concentrated in Hamilton (55%), its industrial output serves the rest of the GTHA and beyond. Reducing industrial emissions is a shared responsibility that will require coordinated and concerted action from governments, policymakers, and industry leaders across the region.

Industrial emissions from 2015 to 2020 are sourced from the Government of Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), which mandates emissions reporting by facilities emitting 10 ktCO2e or more. Notably, small- and medium-sized emitters releasing less than 10 ktCO2e are not tracked.

Since the collective magnitude of these unreported emissions may be quite significant, TAF is investigating methods for estimating these for future inventories. The 2021 GHGRP was not yet available at the time of this inventory, so industrial emissions here are estimates based on the change in industrial natural gas consumption. Numbers will be updated once the 2021 GHGRP is released.