In 2021, Canada's logging industry released nearly as much carbon as the Alberta oil sands, but a new report out today has found the federal government failed to report those emissions properly.
"Canada has been obfuscating its emissions in forestry for years now," said Jennifer Skene, one of the report's authors and the NRDC's Natural Climate Solutions Policy Manager for Canada. The gap between what's reported in the national inventory and what's happening on the ground occurs because Canada is giving the logging industry credit for the regrowth of trees planted after a wildfire, the report notes.
Provinces like B.C. make up a disproportionate share of logging emissions. In 2004, B.C.'s forestry sector flipped from a net carbon sink to a net carbon emitter. By 2018, the industry released more than half the annual emissions currently being counted in the province, according to public data.