Statistics Canada : Physical flow accounts: Intensities and demand-based measures, 2012

Released: 2016-01-29

Direct plus indirect industrial energy use intensity

4.84 gigajoules per $1,000

2012

Direct plus indirect industrial greenhouse gas emissions intensity

0.36 tonnes per $1,000

2012

Personal expenditure by households (45.7%) and international export (35.7%) remained the dominant triggers for energy use in Canada in 2012, changing slightly from their 2011 shares of 46.8% and 34.8% respectively.

The final demand perspective allocates industrial consumption and emissions to the end-user of goods and services, rather than the producer. Personal expenditure by households yields both direct and indirect energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For energy, an example of direct energy use is the gasoline required by households to drive their car, whereas an example of indirect energy use is the energy required by refineries and other industries to produce the gasoline the household purchased.

Greenhouse gas emissions

Correlated with energy use, GHG emissions in the country were largely attributable to direct and indirect emissions resulting from household expenditures, down 1.2 percentage points from 2011 to 43.1%. The purchase and use of motor gasoline accounted for one-quarter of the emissions linked to this category of demand (25.7%), followed by electricity (10.6%) and natural gas (10.1%).

Almost 40% of GHG emissions in 2012 were attributable to the production of goods and services for international export. Just over one-quarter (27.6%) of the emissions associated with exports resulted from the production and delivery of crude oil and crude bitumen to foreign markets, followed by pulp and paper (4.2%) and natural gas (3.0%).

Intensities

In 2012, the average industrial direct plus indirect energy use intensity was 4.84 gigajoules of energy use per $1,000 (current dollars) of production in Canada. The average direct plus indirect GHG emissions intensity was 0.36 tonnes emitted per $1,000 of production.

Intensities provide a measure of the economy-wide effect on energy consumption or GHG emissions brought about by a change in the demand for an industry's output. These include both direct and indirect effects. Direct effects measure the initial requirements for an extra dollar's worth of output of a given industry. Indirect effects measure the upstream changes required to produce the additional output (each product produced will, in turn, require the production of various goods and services from other industries, yielding indirect effects in the process).

Note to readers

Statistics Canada's physical flow accounts record the annual flows of natural resources, products and residuals between the Canadian economy and the environment. Data are presented to reflect the activities of industries, households and governments. Since they follow the classification system used in Statistics Canada's supply and use tables, it is possible to link these data to gross production and final demand to produce the data presented here. These data are available at the national level only.

Data on energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for 2010, 2011 and 2012 as well as data on water use for 2011 were revised following revisions to the supply and use tables (381-0033).

Data on energy use and GHG emissions by final demand category for 2010 and 2011, as well as data on water use by final demand category for 2011 were revised following revisions to the supply and use tables (381-0033) and to the physical flow accounts (153-0113, 153-0114 and 153-0116).

Data on energy intensity and GHG emissions intensity by industry for 2010 and 2011 were revised following revisions to the supply and use tables (381-0033) and to the physical flow accounts (153-0113 and 153-0114).

The data on intensities by industry provide a measure of the interdependence between an industry, the rest of the economy, and the use of energy or production of GHG emissions. They should only be considered on a single-year basis (rather than as time series) since they are based on gross output in current dollars.

Contact information

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