Oil Sands Left Out of UN Emissions Report

Environment Canada's annual report said emissions were going down, but didn't mention an increase in oil sands pollution.

A recent report on greenhouse gases that Environment Canada submitted to the United Nations managed to leave out key data on the oil sands' impact on Canada's total emissions. The report said there was a six per cent decrease in greenhouse-gas emissions in Canada in 2008 and 2009, which it claimed was due to slowed industrial output owing to the recession. However, the report, an annual inventory of emissions that each country is required to submit to the UN, failed to include any mention of the oil sands' 20 per cent increase in greenhouse gases during that time period. Data on the oil sands' emissions had been included in previous years' reports, but Environment Canada maintains that the latest report followed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change's guidelines.