Metro Vancouver’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory provides information on the types of air emission sources in the lower Fraser Valley, their location, and the amount of air contaminants emitted. Greenhouse gases included in the inventory are: Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), and Nitrous Oxide (N2O). Carbon Dioxide is the primary contributor and has the most relevant implications for climate change. Building emission sources include commercial, institutional, and residential buildings. On-road transportation sources include light duty and heavy duty vehicles.
Key performance measure
Metro 2050 establishes the performance measure as the total and change in tonnes of regional greenhouse gas emissions related to land use, buildings, industry, agriculture, waste, transportation, and other emission sources. This measure supports the regional target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% below 2010 levels by the year 2030, and be carbon neutral by the year 2050.
Progress
This key performance measure is not on track. The strategies and policy actions of Metro 2050 encourage greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reduction across the region. This performance measure has an ambitious target for the region to reduce GHGs.
Metro Vancouver has historically compiled a regional emission inventory every five years. Regional GHG emissions were 14.8 million tonnes in 2020, less than a 1% reduction from the 2010 baseline.
Metro Vancouver is moving towards an annual emissions that will improve our ability to track and measure the impacts of Climate 2050 and other climate actions taking place in the region. The regional emissions inventories for on-road transportation and buildings are completed and GHG inventories for other sectors will be available soon.
In 2022, the total regional GHGs from buildings was 4.9 million tonnes of CO2e, and total regional GHG emissions from on-road vehicles was 6.3 million tonnes of CO2e.