Greenhouse Gases

Scientists identify six main Greenhouse Gases:

Carbon Dioxide – CO₂
Methane – CH₄
Nitrous Oxide – N₂O
Sulphur Hexafluoride – SF₆
Perfluorocarbons – PFC’s
Hydroflourocarbons – HFC’s

Carbon Dioxide, Methane and Nitrous Oxide are the most prevalent, and CO₂ represents about 80% of the total GHG in Canada. Energy production and consumption contributes about 82% of Canada’s total GHG emissions. Increases in population, economic activity (resource based), oil and gas production all contribute to rising emissions in the Canadian environment.

Canada produces approximately 2.0% of the global GHG emissions, while Canadians make up only 0.5% of the global population. Moving people and goods accounted for 19% of Canada’s total GHG emissions (in 2004).

By operating a high consumption vehicle on propane GHG emissions can be reduced by about 4.0 tonnes annually, compared to running that vehicle on gasoline.

Consider the tonnes of GHG emissions that could be reduced each year based on the following number of vehicles converted to propane:

60,000 vehicles = 240,000 tonnes
80,000 vehicles = 320,000 tonnes
100,000 vehicles = 400,000 tonnes