Ontario's agriculture sector's greenhouse gas emissions reductions disputed

Monday, December 3, 2012

by SUSAN MANN

Ontario’s agricultural industry only produces a tiny amount of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions but the sector isn’t doing anything to reduce its output, says Ontario Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller.

Miller made the comments during an interview after today’s release of his annual review of the provincial government’s 2007 climate change action. His report is called A Question of Commitment, Review of the Ontario Government’s Climate Change Action Plan Results. Ontario’s 2007 plan established province-wide targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as programs for reducing emissions in six sectors – electricity, transportation, industry, building, agriculture and waste.

“The agriculture sector has not contributed anything to meeting” Ontario’s targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, he says, questioning if the industry was planning to continue not contributing.

Don McCabe, Ontario Federation of Agriculture vice-president, disagrees the industry isn’t doing its part. Agriculture has increased production every year as part of the long-term trend, which means farmers are producing “more units of output per year with less greenhouse gas emissions. We are becoming more efficient.”

The sector is also doing its part through efforts such as the OFA-led biomass project looking to supply coal-fired Nanticoke and Lambton electricity generating stations with energy crops and studying feedstocks and crop residues in general for use in future biochemicals.  

As for the province overall, Miller says in a press release accompanying his report’s release that the Ontario government is backing away from its plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Delays now will cripple efforts to fight climate change. “With each passing year, it becomes clear that without new policies and a drastic change in the current upward trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions our planet is headed for a frightening future,” he states.

The government is only halfway to meeting its 2020 target. That’s only eight years away and Ontario has no additional measures to close the gap. Miller acknowledges the government’s phasing out of coal-fired generation has helped it reach 90 per cent of its 2014 target. But the associated increase in Ontario’s natural gas generating capacity is going to make it difficult for the government to meet its 2020 and 2050 emissions reductions targets.

Miller says the federal government reports the Ontario’s agricultural industry has been emitting 10 megatonnes of greenhouse gas annually for the past several years. Ontario as a whole emits around 170 megatonnes.

The provincial greenhouse gas emissions targets are 165 megatonnes by 2014 and 150 megatonnes by 2020.

“Agriculture hasn’t contributed to a reduction since 2007,” Miller notes, adding there has been a shift in where greenhouse gases from the sector are coming from with a bit less methane from livestock but quite a bit more nitrous oxide from crop production. The two big sources of agricultural emissions are cattle belches and nitrous oxide from ammonium nitrate fertilizer for cash crops, he says.

Miller acknowledges there have been discussions within the industry about sequestering carbon in the soils and there have been initiatives on biofuel production to displace the burning of fossil fuels for energy production. But farmers could be contributing to Ontario’s efforts to meet its greenhouse gas emissions targets if they were more mindful in their use of nitrogen fertilizer. Doing that would enable the sector to “reduce that nitrous oxide number down,” he says.

For livestock, Miller says their numbers are down and “so the emissions from livestock are currently down.”

Miller says its now time for farmers to do more than just no-till to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. They should have more sophisticated fertilizer management applications and be involved in more sophisticated programs to increase the organic matter content of their soils. With programs where farmers’ efforts can be independently verified, there could be financial incentives.

McCabe says farmers are reducing their greenhouse gas emissions within their own operations “because that is a cost saving directly to our businesses but it’s not being captured because there’s no data management to do it.” BF