ECCC - Environment and Climate Change Canada

Grid electricity intensity for Canada and each of its 13 provinces and territories, from 1990 to 2024, taken from Environment and Climate Change Canada's National Inventory Report.

GovernmentSpecialistOpen licence
Factors
56
Values
550

One per year and method

Countries
1

14 regions, sub-national included

Edition
NIR-1990-2024

published 14 Apr 2026 · all versions

Last loaded
24 Sept 2026

Report a newer version

Overview

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) submits Canada's official greenhouse gas inventory to the UNFCCC every April. Annex 7 of the National Inventory Report, Electricity in Canada: Summary and Intensity Tables, prints one table for Canada and one for each province and territory. It is published as a workbook on the ECCC data portal.

The value of the library is its provincial grain. In 2024 the generation intensity of Quebec was 2.097 g CO2e per kWh and that of Nunavut 740.0, a 352.9x spread that a national average hides.

At a glance

Publisher
Environment and Climate Change Canada
Kind
Government
Scope
SpecialistOne category holds at least 5% of its factors: Electricity, with 100.0%. A generalist needs 4.
Home region
Canada
Edition
NIR-1990-2024
Licence
Open licence (ogl-canada-2.0)

Standardised file

Environment and Climate Change Canada, standardised by open-climate.ai

The publisher's file, re-cut into the schema every library on open-climate.ai shares: one category axis, coded regions, canonical units, AR6 warming potentials, the source row kept beside each value. What is in the file

  • Edition NIR-1990-2024xlsxen28 rows · built 2026-09-01 · 31ae4a10f2e1free account required
  • Edition NIR-1990-2024csven28 rows · built 2026-09-01 · 80016c0d1b7afree account required

What open-climate.ai standardised

over the publisher's own fileHow we standardise

Warming potentials

14 factor values recalculated on AR6

0 factor values already on AR6

42 factor values left on the publisher's GWP

7 more things standardised

Audit checks

91 passed1 known limitation3 enforced when loadedlast run 25 Sept 2026

Checks we run on every load to keep the data above trustworthy. Counts are for this library; the grey figure is the same check across all libraries. Point at the i to see why a check matters.

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Needs attention

  • An activity's grouping key names only the activity

    Known limitation · 1 in this library · 6 in all libraries

One category axis

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  • Every source category maps to our vocabulary

    Enforced when loaded

  • The publisher's classification is kept

    Passed

  • Every classification level has a valid parent

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  • Every product code comes with the codes above it

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  • A publisher's own classification is used only by that publisher

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  • A standard classification code has one label in every library

    Passed

Coded regions

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  • Every region is a known code

    Enforced when loaded

  • No named region is filed under a broader one

    Passed

  • Every region sits in the world hierarchy

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Canonical units

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  • Every unit is a known code

    Enforced when loaded

  • One source unit maps to one unit

    Passed

  • A unit label means the same in every library

    Passed

  • A unit label that names no basis folds one way

    Passed · 1 in all libraries

Declared boundaries

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  • Every boundary states what it includes

    Passed

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  • Each biofuel follows one convention for biogenic CO2

    Passed · 12 in all libraries

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Warming potentials

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  • Methane and nitrous oxide figures match the stated GWP

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  • Every convertible value has its AR6 version

    Passed

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    Passed · 3,229 in all libraries

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    Passed · 19,942 in all libraries

  • Standardised figures keep every gas the publisher lists

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Summed totals

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  • Summed totals equal their parts on every gas

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  • Every summed total has a classification when its parts do

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  • Summed totals keep their parts' classification

    Passed

Electricity mix

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  • Every electricity factor states its mix

    Passed

  • The market-based value is the default

    Passed

  • One default value per factor and year

    Passed

  • Every green-electricity zero is a market-based value

    Passed

  • Green-electricity zeros are not rated below market-based peers

    Passed

Data quality

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  • Quality ratings fall inside their scale

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    Passed

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    Passed

  • Every quality level gives a recognised reason

    Passed

  • A zero that is only a gap in the source is withheld

    Passed

  • The library is not rated entirely on one fallback quality level

    Passed

Languages

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  • Every factor has an English name

    Passed

  • Translations match the current source text

    Passed · 286,941 in all libraries

  • Every served factor has a name

    Passed

  • Factors are searched on their English name where one exists

    Passed · 7 in all libraries

  • Every language with a main name also has a full name

    Passed

  • Full names are built from their parts in the same language

    Passed

  • Every text is labelled with its real language

    Passed

  • Every description is available for display and translation

    Passed

  • Every usage note is available for display and translation

    Passed

Traceable to the source

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  • Values traced to one source row agree with each other

    Passed

  • No duplicate factors are served

    Passed · 302 in all libraries

  • No factor value claims two things that cannot both be true

    Passed · 5,836 in all libraries

  • No factor value the publisher has withdrawn is still served

    Passed · 556 in all libraries

Other checks

  • An activity's grouping key names only the activity

    Known limitation · 1 in this library · 6 in all libraries

  • A Creative Commons credit names its licence

    Passed

  • No note of ours appears in the credit or licence notice

    Passed

  • The credit line carries no terms of use

    Passed

  • Every part links to a valid parent

    Passed

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    Passed

  • An avoided credit is linked to the burden it belongs to

    Passed

  • Every value is typed as specific, generic or average

    Passed

  • Validity dates are the publisher's own, never guessed

    Passed

  • Quality breakdowns use their scheme's axes

    Passed

  • No battery-electric vehicle carries tailpipe emissions

    Passed

  • The text of each estimated factor matches its current figures

    Passed

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  • Every estimated factor still matches the inputs it was computed from

    Passed

  • Every factor with a current value has a default

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  • Every factor has a value, in a library that publishes values

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  • Every fixed group of regions lists what it covers

    Passed

  • Where both exist, the residual mix is shown before the green-tariff zero

    Passed

  • The newest edition of each value is the one marked current

    Passed

  • Factor descriptions describe the factor, not the whole library

    Passed

  • Every library's licence has its rights recorded

    Passed

  • Every green-electricity zero is exactly zero and says why

    Passed

  • Green-electricity zeros cover power generation only

    Passed

  • Only a total we computed may mix GWP vintages

    Passed

  • Spend factors state their price year and basis

    Passed

  • Every value has a number, a GWP version and a reference year

    Passed

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    Passed · 4 in all libraries

  • Every excused arithmetic disagreement is stated

    Passed

  • Every reference year falls between 1960 and next year

    Passed

  • The parts of a total are never listed twice under one label

    Passed

  • Every residual mix has its green-tariff counterpart

    Passed

  • Every factor points to its top parent

    Passed

  • Every publisher's quality rating system is read

    Passed

  • A supplier named in the source is linked to the factor

    Passed

  • No factor is an unlinked part of another factor

    Passed

  • A part covering the same scope as its total is linked to it

    Passed

  • A year in a factor's name matches its reference year

    Passed

How the audit works

What can I do with this data?

Open licence · credit the publisher

Your rights

Open licence · ogl-canada-2.0
Use it to calculate my own footprint
Yes
Publish my footprint results
Yes, if
  • you credit the publisher
  • you imply no endorsement by the publisher
Share the file with my customers
Yes, if
  • you credit the publisher
  • you imply no endorsement by the publisher
Put the factors in a product I sell
Yes, if
  • you credit the publisher
  • you imply no endorsement by the publisher
Modify it or combine it with my own data
Yes, if
  • you credit the publisher
  • you imply no endorsement by the publisher

Named licence, checked on 16 Aug 2026

Open Government Licence - Canada 2.0: copy, modify, publish, adapt and distribute the Information for any lawful purpose, commercial included; attribution is the only condition, with no suggestion of official endorsement.

Credit line

Data: Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada. Normalised by open-climate.ai, https://open-climate.ai/factors/libraries/eccc_canada (CC BY 4.0)

Not legal advice: the publisher's terms prevail.

Full terms

How to read these answers

Coverage

What the library covers, by category and by boundary. Click a slice to drill in, then a sub-category or a boundary to filter the factors below.

By category

Electricity: 56
56factors

Click a slice to see what is under it. Click a name to hide it from the ring.

By boundary

Supply chain only: 28Direct only: 14Energy, full chain: 14
56factors

Click a slice to see what is under it. Click a name to hide it from the ring.

Browse factors

top 0 matches

SavedUnfoldActivitySub-categoryRegionBoundaryUnitGWP

Checked for updates 18 Sept 2026: the publisher has released something newer, which we are reviewing (1 signal watched)

VersionPublishedLoadedStatusSource
NIR-1990-202414 Apr 202624 Sept 2026ServedSource

Methodology

How this works
  • Each table covers the power sector, NAICS 22111 Electric Power Generation, and publishes two series per year: generation intensity and consumption intensity. Values are printed in g CO2e per kWh; we serve them in kg per kWh.
  • Only main activity producers are counted: companies whose main business is generating electricity, public or private, reported under NAICS 22111. Autoproducers, which generate for their own operations, are reported under the industry they belong to and are outside these tables.
  • The emissions counted are those from burning coal, natural gas, refined petroleum products such as light and heavy fuel oil and diesel, petroleum coke, still gas and other fuels the source does not categorise. On-site combustion at a plant that is not directly for generation is in as well. CO2 that is captured and stored is taken back out of the total.
  • ECCC derives the values from Statistics Canada: the Report on Energy Supply and Demand in Canada for fuel consumption, and the Electric Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution publication together with data tables 25-10-0019-01, 25-10-0020-01, 25-10-0021-01 and 25-10-0084-01 for generation. Generation data come from the data tables for 2005 onwards and from the publication for 1990 to 2004. Some jurisdictions come from their regional electricity system operator instead.
  • The printed report rounds these values. We import the unrounded ones from the workbook.
  • Generation intensity is the sector's emissions divided by the electricity it generates. It carries a breakdown into CO2, CH4 and N2O. Biogenic CO2 is left out, while CH4 and N2O from burning biomass are in. SF6 from electrical equipment is reported separately and is not included.
  • Consumption intensity is the intensity of electricity as delivered: a supply mix adjusted for trade between provinces and grossed up for transmission and distribution losses. It has no gas breakdown. We label it Well-to-use.
  • For consumption intensity, electric energy losses in transmission and distribution are subtracted from total generation, and the power sector's share of SF6 emissions from switchgear and other electrical equipment is added to total emissions. Those losses are the sector's share of what the annex calls unallocated energy, so the consumption values move with it.
  • The two series are different quantities of electricity, not parts of one total. In 2024 Prince Edward Island's consumption intensity is 82.93 times its generation intensity, because the island imports most of its power. Never add one to the other.
  • The workbook states no GWP basis. The gas breakdown reproduces IPCC AR5 (100-year) and no other report, so values are marked AR5, as inferred. We also compute an AR6 value for the generation series from its gas breakdown; the consumption series has none.
  • The reference year is the inventory year. The 2024 values are marked preliminary by ECCC.
  • Canada's generation intensity is the generation-weighted average of the 13 provinces and territories, so the national factor overlaps them.

Data year: the inventory year of the National Inventory Report.

What we import

  • The National Inventory Report 1990-2024 edition, released 2026-04-14: the 14 intensity tables of Annex 7, two series each, for the years 1990, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2019 to 2024. That gives 28 factors and 276 values.
  • The table notes. The ones that set a series apart, on what the delivered mix adds, become that factor's included processes; the ones on how to read the numbers become its applicability. The notes printed identically in all 14 tables are on this page instead of on 28 factors.
  • Not imported: Annex 6 and the rest of the report; the breakdown of emissions and generation by fuel inside each Annex 7 table; the unallocated energy and SF6 rows, which are not per-kWh values and are kept only as context; and cells printed as x, ** or unk, which are never read as zero. Those rows and cells are kept in our archive with their reason.
  • Nunavut: 1990 is published only combined with the Northwest Territories, so the Northwest Territories 1990 values cover both. Nunavut's 2005 and 2010 generation values are withheld by ECCC for statistical reasons; its consumption values for those years are served.
  • Names are generated in English. French names are machine translated.

ECCC prints generation and a consumption intensity that already holds the grid losses, but no fuel chain. Beside each generation intensity, open-climate.ai adds two legs ECCC never printed, each as its own factor marked as an estimate: the fuel chain (extracting, refining and transporting the fuel the plants burn) and the fuel chain of the losses. They are computed by a stated rule from ECCC's own tables: the loss share is the gap between the consumption and generation series, and the fuel weights are the fuel shares of each Annex 7 table, with Ember's mix for Canada as a whole. They are rated low quality. No loss leg and no new total are added, since the consumption intensity is ECCC's own delivered total. How the legs are estimated.

Open, under the Open Government Licence – Canada, version 2.0. Commercial use and redistribution are allowed; attribution is the only condition. The attribution statement is: "Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada."

What can I do with this data?

Credit line: Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.

ogl-canada-2.0

Limitations

  • Emissions from flooding land for hydro reservoirs are excluded. This matters most for Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia, whose grids are mostly hydro.
  • ECCC does not say whether the electricity generated is counted gross or net. The Statistics Canada tables it cites are gross, so we read it as gross; that is our inference, not a publisher statement.
  • ECCC's values hold no upstream fuel chain. The fuel-chain legs we add estimate it, at low quality.
  • Where a province imports much of its power, the gap between the consumption and generation series is mostly trade, not loss, and the fuel chain of the losses reads it as loss. That leg is overstated on Prince Edward Island in every year and in Quebec in 2015, 2020 and 2021: on Prince Edward Island in 2024 it is 0.0577 kg per kWh, 18 times the generation intensity it is computed from. Do not use it there.
  • The Northwest Territories and Nunavut are printed to two significant figures, far coarser than the provinces.
  • Every submission restates the whole series back to 1990. Cite the edition along with the year.

Changelog

  • 2026-09-25: estimated fuel-chain legs added beside the generation intensities.
  • 2026-09-24: the annex narrative and the shared table notes moved here from the factors, which all carried them.
  • 2026-09-15: consumption intensities relabelled Well-to-use.
  • 2026-08-17: National Inventory Report 1990-2024 edition loaded, 28 factors for Canada and its 13 provinces and territories.

Know a newer edition?

If ECCC has published an edition we do not serve yet, tell us where to find it.