Big and Little Feet Provincial Profiles: Territories

This communiqué provides a summary of the production- and consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions accounts for the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, as well as their associated trade flows. It is part of a series of communiqués profiling the Canadian provinces and territories.1 In simplest terms, a production-based emissions account measures the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions produced in the territories. In contrast, a consumption-based emissions account measures the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions generated during the production process for final goods and services that are consumed in the territories through household purchases, investment by firms and government spending. Trade flows refer to the movement of emissions that are produced in the territories but which support consumption in a different province or country (and vice versa). For example, emissions associated with the production of gold in Nunavut that is exported to Quebec for processing and sale are recorded as a trade flow from the territories to Quebec. Moving in the opposite direction, emissions associated with the production of British Columbia natural gas that is sold to a Northwest Territories utility and used to generate electricity for homes in the Northwest Territories are recorded as a trade flow from British Columbia to the territories. For further details on these results in a national context, the methodology for generating them and their policy implications, please see the companion papers to this communiqué series: (1) Fellows and Dobson (2017); and (2) Dobson and Fellows (2017). Additionally, the consumption emissions and trade flow data for each of the provinces and territories are available at: http://www.policyschool.ca/embodied-emissions-inputs-outputs-datatables-2004-2011/