Archived: Reporting greenhouse gas emissions data, technical guidance 2017: chapter 3

3. Basic concepts for reporting emissions

3.1 General reporting requirements

All facilities with emissions above the new 10-kilotonne (kt) threshold in 2017 are required to report their emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs):

• facilities with activities outside the sectors outlined below will report their GHG emissions by gas for each of the identified emission source categories (listed in section 4.1). Reporters will be subject to these basic emissions reporting requirements as in prior years
• facilities involved in cement, lime, iron and steel and aluminium manufacturing must report additional information and use prescribed quantification methods. Reporters need to select a method from the prescribed list of quantification requirements for determining emissions contained in Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Quantification Requirements

For example, a facility involved in waste treatment activities would be subject to the basic emissions reporting requirements. Another facility involved in lime manufacturing would be subject to the expanded reporting requirements. However, a facility manufacturing lime and doing waste treatment will report its GHG emissions from lime manufacturing using the expanded requirements, but would use the basic requirements to report its emissions from the waste treatment activities. All activities generating emissions, in this instance waste treatment and lime manufacturing, must be considered for the purpose of determining if a facility meets or exceeds the reporting threshold.

The reporting requirements introduced for carbon capture, transport and storage (CCTS) apply for any facility involved in those activities. Therefore, the 10-kt threshold does not apply in this case; any facility engaged in one or more of these activities must report its related emissions and other required information. However, the 10-kt threshold will apply to the non-CCTS related activities of those same facilities.

Reporters are reminded of the legal requirement to keep copies of the information submitted, together with any calculations, measurements and other data on which the information is based, for a minimum period of three years from the date the information must be submitted.

3.2 Key elements in calculating emissions

3.2.1 Basic emissions quantification requirements

Currently, there are no specific protocols to define how reporting facilities must calculate their GHG emissions for facilities that are not involved in any of the industries described in section 3.2.2. However, reporters must use methods that are consistent with the methodologies described in the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines.

The reporting facility must identify and report the type of estimation method or methods used to determine the quantities of emissions reported. Such methods include monitoring or direct measurement, mass balance, emission factors and engineering estimates. These are defined below.

Monitoring or direct measurement:

This type of method may involve continuous emission monitoring systems (i.e., emissions recorded over an extended and uninterrupted period), predictive emission monitoring (correlations developed or calculated between measured emission rates and process parameters) or source testing (e.g., stack sampling).

Mass balance:

This type of method involves the application of the law of conservation of mass to a facility, process or piece of equipment. Emissions are determined from the difference in the input and output of a unit operation where the accumulation and depletion of a substance are included in the calculations.

Emission factors:

This method uses established emission factors (EF) to estimate the rate at which a pollutant is released into the atmosphere (or captured) as a result of some process activity or unit throughput. The EFs used may be average or general EFs, or technology-specific EFs.

Engineering estimates:

This type of method may involve estimating emissions based on engineering principles and judgment, using knowledge of the chemical and physical processes involved, the design features of the source, and an understanding of the applicable physical and chemical laws.

The following key characteristics of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (IPCC, 2006) are useful for reporters when calculating their facility’s GHG emissions:

1. The availability of a number of differing “tiers” of calculation methods
   For each category of emission sources, there are several ways of calculating the emissions, described as tiers (e.g., Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3); each tier has an associated increasing level of detail and accuracy (e.g., a Tier 2 method is considered more accurate than a Tier 1 method).
2. The use of specific emission factors or data
   An emission factor is a value that quantifies emission rates associated with an activity (e.g., fuel combustion). To evaluate GHG emissions, “default emission factors” are provided for many different fuels and activities. These default emission factors are considered to be less accurate than country-specific factors and even less accurate than process-specific factors. Reporters should use Canada-specific emission factors from the 2018 National Inventory Report^{Footnote 11}  or, better yet, industry-specific or technology-specific ones, when available. For example, the combustion of natural gas in a boiler results in emissions of GHGs such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O). Each gas has published emission factors that relate its emission rates to quantities of natural gas burned. To determine emissions, a facility would need to determine the total quantity of natural gas consumed during the calendar year (using billing records or meter reading) and multiply this quantity by the emission factor for each GHG. Canada’s latest inventory report provides up-to-date Canada-specific emission factors and information to assist in quantifying emissions.
3. A focus on the prioritization of effort
   The IPCC suggests that the most effort on quantifying emissions should be spent on those sources that are the most critical: those that make up the largest quantity, are responsible for the greatest increase or decrease, or have the highest level of uncertainty associated with them.

Although comprehensive and rigorous, the IPCC Guidelines provide a flexible approach to GHG calculation procedures. The prioritization of emission sources of greatest importance is also emphasized. In prioritizing the work, these guidelines recognize that the more specific the emission factor or methodology (in terms of geography, facility or process), the better the emission estimate should be.

In the spirit of the IPCC Guidelines, reporters should prioritize their efforts when calculating their GHG emissions. This concept can be applied by identifying the emission sources of greatest significance at the facility and using a higher level of effort when calculating emissions from these sources. Since these emission sources have a greater impact on the totals, the use of more detailed methods would be appropriate. For example, for significant sources, efforts could be focused on using available facility- or process-specific emission factors or estimation methods, as opposed to general or default emission factors or estimation methods. Applying a lower level of effort (i.e., less detailed methods) to calculate emissions for less significant sources would minimize the impact on the level of accuracy.

For further details on the IPCC methodologies, reporters should refer to Table 2, which presents specific references to the relevant sections of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for the emission sources subject to reporting. Facilities can also refer to Annexes 3 (Methodologies) and 6 (Emission Factors) of Part 2 of the Canada’s GHG Inventory Report to obtain detailed explanations of estimation methodologies and emission factors used by Environment and Climate Change Canada in the development of the estimates.

Table 2: reference to methodological guidance in the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change guidelines, by emission source^{Footnote 12} 

3.2.2 Expanded emissions quantification requirements

Facilities engaged in the lime, cement, aluminium and iron and steel manufacturing are subject to expanded details of their 2017 emissions resulting from specific sources, including fuel combustion (both stationary and on-site transportation), and certain industrial processes. They are also required to monitor and report additional data used to determine the identified emissions and to use specific requirements regarding their quantification methods. New requirements for reporting on CCTS activities are also in place as part of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) expansion.

(i) Carbon capture, transport and storage (schedule 6, section 1 of Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Quantification Requirements)

Any facility engaged in CO₂ capture, CO₂ transport, CO₂ injection and/or CO₂ storage is required to report the identified information in schedule 6 for their 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 data. Since enhanced fossil fuel recovery is integrated in these activities, this will include facilities engaged in enhanced fossil fuel recovery using CO₂. The CO₂ activities covered would include CO₂ injected directly into long-term geological storage as well as CO₂ used for enhanced fossil fuel recovery with a goal of long term geological storage of CO₂.

(ii) Fuel combustion (schedule 7, section 2 of Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Quantification Requirements)

A common set of reporting requirements and quantification methods for combustion emissions have been issued for the four industries listed below. The fuel combustion requirements include emissions from stationary fuel combustion,  on-site transportation, and flaring. Facilities are not required to report fuels and associated emissions when the sum of CO₂ emissions from the combustion of one or more fuels do not exceed 0.5 % of the total facility CO₂ emissions from all fuel combustion.

(iii) Lime manufacturing (schedule 8, section 3 of Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Quantification Requirements)

Lime production involves three main processes: stone preparation, calcination, and hydration. During the calcination process, lime is heated which generates process-related CO₂ emissions. These CO₂ emissions will be categorized under industrial process emissions.

(iv) Cement manufacturing (schedule 9, section 4 of Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Quantification Requirements)

The cement manufacturing process comprises two steps: (i) clinker production and (ii) finish grinding. Process-related GHG emissions from cement manufacturing arise from process-related CO₂ emissions generated during clinker production. Clinker typically contains a large fraction of calcium oxide (CaO) and may contain a very small fraction of magnesium oxide (MgO), which is formed during the calcination process from magnesite in raw materials. During clinker production, some of the clinker precursor materials form partially or fully calcined cement kiln dust instead of forming clinker, which must also be included in the calculation of emissions to be reported. All process related CO₂ emissions from clinker production will be categorized under industrial process emissions.

(v) Aluminium manufacturing (schedule 10, section 5 of Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Quantification Requirements)

The manufacturing of primary aluminium results in process-related emissions of CO₂, two perfluorocarbons (PFCs), namely, perfluoromethane, (CF₄) and perfluoroethane (C₂F₆), as well as sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆). All data used to quantify the emission sources specified above must be reported; process-related CO₂, CF₄ and C₂F₆ emissions from aluminium production will be categorized under industrial process emissions, while SF₆ emissions will be categorized under industrial product use emissions.

 (vi) Iron and steel manufacturing (schedule 11, section 6 of Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Quantification Requirements)

Quantification and reporting of CO₂ emissions are required from major process units and processes where the consumption of raw materials, usually in combination with fuel combustion, contribute to GHGs emissions. Emissions from CO₂ are to be quantified and reported for the following major process units and processes: taconite indurating furnace, basic oxygen furnace, coke oven battery, sinter production, electric arc furnace, argon-oxygen decarburization, direct reduction furnace, blast furnace, ladle furnace, the atomization of molten cast iron, the decarburization of iron powder, molten steel grading and the annealing of steal powder.

For facilities that manufacture iron and steel, specific process inputs and outputs that contribute less than 1 % of the total mass of carbon into or out of the process are exempt from requirements. For those facilities manufacturing iron and steel powder, carbon process inputs and ouputs that contribute less than 0.5 % of the total mass of carbon into or out of the process are exempt from requirements. All process-related CO₂ emissions from iron, steel and iron and steel power production will be categorized under industrial process emissions with the exception of emissions arising from coke oven batteries which will be categorized under fugitive emissions.

Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Quantification Requirements document describes the required methods to be used by each manufacturing industry mentioned above and by those involved in CCTS activities. In most cases, more than one quantification method is available for each sector or activity. The selection of a method depends on the information available to the reporter, thus allowing a flexible approach to GHG calculation procedures while building consistency in the methods used and the resulting data.

3.3 Review and verification

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) reviews the information submitted by facilities and conducts a number of quality checks of the submitted data for compliance purposes and for completeness. ECCC will follow up with individual facilities if there are any clarifications needed regarding their data. Reporting facilities are required to keep copies of the reported information, together with any calculations, measurements and other data on which the information is based, at the facility to which it relates or at that facility’s parent company in Canada. All information must be kept for a period of three years from the mandated submission date.

Reporters are also required to submit a Statement of Certification, signed by an authorized officer, stating that the information submitted is true, accurate and complete.

Facilities that meet reporting threshold but fail to report, fail to report on time, or knowingly submit false or misleading information, face the penalties listed under sections 272 and 273 of Canadian Environment Protection Act (CEPA). Facilities that did not meet the reporting criteria in previous years should review their status to determine whether they are required to report for the current reporting year.

Currently, there are no specific requirements for a facility to have its emissions verified by a third party. The information reported by a facility should nevertheless be verifiable, which means that any information that would allow a facility’s emissions to be verified by the government or a third party certified by the government to carry out such verifications should be retained. Facilities can choose to have their emissions verified by a third party if they wish.