Canada announced that their greenhouse emissions were down 2.3% in 2006/2007 compared to 2005/2006. A closer look at the statistics shows where the cuts are coming from... average Canadian citizens. Across the board emissions from utilities, manufacturing, air travel, waste management and health care were down - industries that most directly affect average citizens. Despite this decline, emissions from mining and oil and gas extraction continued to rise drastically this year.

It is not that advancements in lowering emissions from mining and oil extraction haven’t been made or implemented. They have. The problem comes from the increased production levels in the oil and mineral industries that have continued to rise to meet the world-wide demand for oil and to the drop in Middle East supplies from wars in those regions. Canada is still falling short of its Kyoto goals and the emissions drop for this year comes almost completely from the offset in the public sector of the private sector’s rise. Annalists warn that if the emissions from mining and extraction continue to rise at the same rate, the drop this year will only be a blip on the radar in an ongoing rising trend.