Greenhouse gas emissions increase in Yukon

In Yukon, greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 10% in recent years, reveals the most recent report from the government, which nevertheless assures that it is on the right track to achieve its carbon neutrality objectives in 2050.

This increase in emissions would be due to a significant increase in the territory’s population, which increased from 35,000 to 44,000 people between 2020 and 2022. The government notes, however, that emissions per person have fallen by 12%.

Population growth makes this more difficult, but that doesn’t change our goal of completely reducing our emissionssupports the Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources, John Streicker.

The sectors that emit the most greenhouse gases remain transportation with gasoline vehicles as well as the heating of homes and buildings across the territory. The only sector to see a significant decline is the transport of diesel vehicles, which fell from 26% to 15% of all emissions.

The data used for the report dates from 2020 to 2022, which the government explains by the time it takes for Ottawa to compile and analyze this data. A greater reduction is expected in the coming years, around 2030, but the government says it is in a good position to follow its action plan.

It is important to recognize that the 2022 data we have dates from only a few years after the action plan was submitted. […] and that all our measures have an application curve which starts slowly before acceleratingexplains the director of the energy department of the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Resources, Shane Andre.

These measures, as well as the increase in population, however, add pressure on the Yukon’s electricity network. Minister John Streicker emphasizes that discussions are underway with British Columbia to connect the territory’s electricity network to that of the province.

In September, Ottawa also granted a grant of $40 million to study the feasibility of such a connection project.

This gives us confidence that when we need electricity, we have access to electricity from a renewable sourceindicates John Streicker, emphasizing that this would also allow the territory to move forward with certain renewable energy projects.

We will still need diesel and liquefied natural gas because, if there is an outage, then we will have this system to ensure that we can provide electricity to Yukoners.

Put the mines aside

In 2022, Yukon produced a total of 735 kilotons of CO₂not counting emissions from the mining sector.

When we developed the strategy, we wanted to separate the goal of reducing emissions from mines because we could have three new mineswhich would have prevented the territory from achieving its objectives, explains the director of the climate change secretariat, Rebecca Turpin.

Conversely, the territory also did not want to risk finding itself in a situation where it closed all its mines and where it remained arms crossed, telling yourself that everything has been accomplishedshe specifies.

The mining sector is changing too quickly for our economysaid for his part Minister John Streicker. He explains that, by determining a fixed greenhouse gas emissions target that includes the mining sector, this could have an impact on the rehabilitation of mines like Faro, which will be polluting.

In 2021, the mining sector was responsible for just over 128 kilotons of CO₂. If the territory took it into account, it would be the third source of pollution after heating and gasoline vehicles.