Canadian greenhouse gases rose 1990-2005

Canada's greenhouse gas emissions increased 25 percent between 1990 and 2005, a federal report published Tuesday said.

The Statistics Canada report, timed for release on Earth Day, said in 2005, human activities released the equivalent of 747 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, up 25 percent from emissions of 596 million tons in 1990.

Energy production and consumption accounted for more than 80 percent of emissions in 2005, the report said.

StatsCan said the increase in emissions would have been even greater had it not been for increases in energy efficiency.

While Canada has about 0.5 percent of the world's population, it contributes about 2 percent of the total global greenhouse emissions, the report said.

In 2005, just more than 23 tons of gases were emitted for each person in Canada, which is an 8 percent per capita increase since 1990, compared with 24.4 tons per capita in the United States.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International