Big and Little Feet Provincial Profiles: British Columbia

Abstract

This communiqué provides a summary of the production- and consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions accounts for British Columbia, 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 British Columbia. In contrast, a consumptionbased emissions account measures the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions generated during the production process for final goods and services that are consumed in British Columbia through household purchases, investment by firms and government spending. Trade flows refer to the movement of emissions that are produced in British Columbia but which support consumption in a different province, territory or country (and vice versa). For example, emissions at the Port of Vancouver that are associated with goods that are subsequently exported to Ontario for sale are recorded as a trade flow from British Columbia to Ontario. Moving in the opposite direction, emissions associated with the production of Alberta crude oil that is refined in British Columbia and sold as motor gasoline to a British Columbia consumer are recorded as a trade flow from Alberta to British Columbia. 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/.