Energy Efficiency Trends in Canada

 Energy use and GHG emissions

 Energy intensity

 Energy efficiency

  Energy use and GHG emissions

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Secondary energy use by sector, 2016

Distribution of energy use	Percentage
Residential	16.6
Commercial/institutional	11.4
Industrial	38.9
Transportation	29.8
Agriculture	3.4

Secondary energy is energy that has been transformed in an energy conversion process to more convenient forms of energy that can be used directly by society, such as electrical energy, refined fuels, or synthetic fuels such as hydrogen fuel. Secondary energy is also referred to as a carrier of energy.

Primary energy is an energy form found in nature that has not been subjected to any human-engineered conversion process. It is energy contained in raw fuels and can be non-renewable (oil, coal, natural gas) or renewable (hydro, biofuels, solar, wind).

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GHG emissions by sector, 2016

Distribution of GHGs	Percentage
Residential	12.9
Commercial/institutional	9.4
Industrial	35.8
Transportation	38.0
Agriculture	4.0

Note: Measure is based on final energy use, which does not include producer consumption, feedstock and energy losses.

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Secondary energy use by fuel type, 2016

Distribution of energy use	Percentage
Electricity	20.3
Natural gas	28.7
Motor gasoline	18.3
Other oil products**	14.7
Aviation gasoline	0.03
Aviation turbo fuel	3.2
Petroleum coke and still gas	5.2
Wood waste and pulping liquor	4.2
Other fuels*	3.4
Residential wood	2.0

*Other fuels include coal, coke, coke oven gas, liquefied petroleum gas and gas plant natural gas liquids, and waste fuels from the cement industry.
** Other oil products include diesel fuel oil, light fuel oil, heavy fuel oil and kerosene.

The industrial sector used the most energy, consuming 3,413.8 PJ in 2016.

Energy use in the transportation sector grew 39.4% over the 1990–2016 period, the most rapid of all sectors. A significant increase in freight transportation, continued dominance of passenger vehicles for personal use, and a shift toward larger personal vehicles (SUVs, light-duty trucks) were the principal reasons for the rapid growth of energy use in the transportation sector.

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Total final demand and growth by sector, 1990 and 2016 (petajoules)

	1990	2016	Growth
Residential	1425	1458	2%
Commercial/institutional	746	997	34%
Industrial	2710	3414	26%
Transportation	1878	2618	39%
Agriculture	199	299	50%

Canada’s GHG emissions excluding electricity-related emissions increased 28% while emissions including electricity-related emissions grew 18% between 1990 and 2016.

Increased emissions were significantly less than would otherwise have been the case because of a notable change in the fuel mix used to generate electricity. In particular, the share of coal used for electricity generation fell from 25% in 2008 to 16% in 2016.

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Total GHG emissions and growth by sector, 1990 and 2016 (Mt CO₂e)

	1990	2016	Growth
Residential	72.8	61.1	-16%
Commercial/institutional	41.0	44.4	8%
Industrial	141.2	169.8	20%
Transportation	132.3	180.3	36%
Agriculture	13.5	19.1	41%

The rapid growth of energy consumption and dominance of GHG-intensive refined petroleum products are the principal reasons why the transportation sector was the single greatest source of GHG emissions in Canada in 2016.

  Energy intensity

Energy intensity is a measure of the energy inefficiency of an economy and calculated as units of energy per GDP. High energy intensities indicate a high cost of converting energy into GDP. Many factors influence overall energy intensity such as standard of living, weather conditions, vehicular distances travelled, methods and patterns of transportation (mass transit), off-grid energy sources, new energy sources, energy disruptions (power blackout) and energy efficiency.

Energy intensity improved 30.3% between 1990 and 2016, reflecting a significant overall improvement of how effective Canadians used energy to produce GDP.

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Final energy use, Canadian population and GDP, 1990–2016 (Index 1990=1)

	Final energy use index	Total GDP index*	Total population index
1990	1.0	1.0	1.0
1991	1.0	1.0	1.0
1992	1.0	1.0	1.0
1993	1.0	1.0	1.0
1994	1.1	1.1	1.0
1995	1.1	1.1	1.1
1996	1.1	1.1	1.1
1997	1.1	1.2	1.1
1998	1.1	1.2	1.1
1999	1.1	1.3	1.1
2000	1.2	1.3	1.1
2001	1.1	1.4	1.1
2002	1.2	1.4	1.1
2003	1.2	1.4	1.1
2004	1.2	1.5	1.2
2005	1.2	1.5	1.2
2006	1.2	1.6	1.2
2007	1.3	1.6	1.2
2008	1.2	1.6	1.2
2009	1.2	1.5	1.2
2010	1.2	1.6	1.2
2011	1.3	1.7	1.2
2012	1.3	1.7	1.3
2013	1.3	1.7	1.3
2014	1.3	1.8	1.3
2015	1.3	1.8	1.3
2016	1.3	1.8	1.3

* Data source: CANSIM 379-0031, GDP at basic prices in $2007 constant dollars.

The Canadian population grew 31% (approximately 1.0% per year) and GDP increased 81.3% (about 2.3% per year).

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Energy intensity per capita and per unit of GDP, 1990-2016 (Index 1990=1)

	Energy intensity per capita	Energy intensity per GDP
1990	1.00	1.00
1991	0.97	1.00
1992	0.97	1.00
1993	0.98	1.00
1994	1.01	0.99
1995	1.03	0.99
1996	1.03	1.00
1997	1.04	0.97
1998	1.01	0.91
1999	1.02	0.89
2000	1.05	0.87
2001	1.01	0.83
2002	1.03	0.84
2003	1.04	0.84
2004	1.06	0.83
2005	1.04	0.80
2006	1.02	0.77
2007	1.06	0.79
2008	1.03	0.77
2009	0.98	0.77
2010	1.00	0.76
2011	1.01	0.76
2012	1.00	0.74
2013	1.01	0.74
2014	1.00	0.73
2015	0.99	0.72
2016	0.96	0.70

  Energy efficiency

The International Energy Agency denotes energy efficiency as the world’s “first fuel”. Saving energy has multiple economic and environmental benefits, including being the least-cost option to reduce GHG emissions.

We isolate and track the amount of energy saved through energy efficiency by identifying and measuring the other factors that have an impact on energy use. These include:

• The activity effect is the increase in energy use due to economic growth. Over the 1990–2016 period, the activity effect was 4,304.4 PJ, with a corresponding 227.5-Mt increase in GHG emissions.
• The structure effect is how the changing make-up of the economy influences energy use. For example, some industries may have growth subsectors that are more, or less, energy-intensive than others. Over the 1990–2016 period, less energy-intensive industries became more prevalent in the Canadian economy, reducing energy demand by 683.5 PJ and GHG emissions by 28.1 Mt.
• The weather effect measures the impact of hotter or colder temperatures over time on energy use. In 2016, the winter was warmer than in 1990 and the summer was hotter, resulting in a net energy use decrease of 22.0 PJ and 0.9 Mt fewer GHG emissions.
• The service level effect measures the increased use of equipment in homes and businesses. As the economy has become more digital, energy use has increased both at home and at work. The service level resulted in increased energy use of 173.5 PJ and increased GHG emissions of 7.5 Mt.
• The energy efficiency effect is the balance of the total change in energy use over time (1990–2016) less the impact of the identified factors above. In 2016, the economy realized 2,089.9 PJ of energy savings and avoided 112.1 Mt of GHG emissions resulting from all energy efficiency measures since 1990.

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Summary of factors influencing the change in energy use, 1990–2016

	Petajoules
Total change in energy use	1829.2
Activity effect	4304.4
Structure effect	-683.5
Service level effect	173.5
Weather effect	-22.0
Energy efficiency effect	-2089.9
Other*	146.7

* “Other” refers to street lighting, non-commercial airline aviation, off-road transportation and agriculture, which are included in the “Total change in energy use” but are excluded from the factorization analysis.

Steady increases in activity and, to a lesser degree, service level contributed the most to increased energy use. The structure effect resulting from a shift in production toward industries that are less energy-intensive (financial, commercial and service industries) resulted in a decrease of energy use especially from 2005.

Energy efficiency improvement has been steady since 1990. However, the rate of improvement slowed from 2009 to 2011. This is attributable to the effects of the 2009 recession when the industrial sector faced significant challenges investing in projects to improve energy efficiency.

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Historical trends of factors influencing final energy use, 1990-2016

	Activity effect	Structure effect	Weather effect	Service level effect	Energy efficiency effect	Other
1990	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
1991	31.2	-10.1	19.6	5.8	-117.8	-7.0
1992	107.1	25.8	70.5	14.3	-201.6	-6.8
1993	197.8	44.8	112.8	19.4	-254.3	-5.2
1994	341.3	55.1	82.2	27.6	-266.1	-8.2
1995	703.7	162.0	88.9	37.7	-414.0	11.5
1996	811.8	181.2	159.0	45.2	-499.7	24.1
1997	1126.8	139.0	72.7	55.6	-585.9	34.3
1998	1299.1	116.0	-108.2	64.5	-746.8	33.1
1999	1525.8	170.8	-46.4	72.8	-918.1	39.4
2000	1825.8	89.5	43.6	80.8	-955.6	49.3
2001	1876.0	1.3	-51.0	91.8	-1076.5	49.3
2002	2122.7	4.3	47.7	102.1	-1164.7	42.4
2003	2277.5	-32.5	66.3	112.0	-1137.0	48.0
2004	2579.7	-103.7	25.9	120.0	-1110.2	56.8
2005	2747.8	-182.2	21.2	129.3	-1288.1	67.9
2006	2920.8	-371.1	-86.3	135.6	-1296.1	69.7
2007	3063.1	-273.0	29.1	139.2	-1272.5	90.8
2008	3013.0	-349.3	39.7	144.8	-1304.4	93.5
2009	2836.0	-492.4	50.4	150.3	-1237.1	48.6
2010	3207.0	-506.3	-55.5	153.5	-1334.4	82.6
2011	3363.7	-543.2	-10.2	154.9	-1284.8	107.1
2012	3647.8	-706.7	-91.1	162.4	-1365.9	101.4
2013	3849.5	-698.9	12.7	165.1	-1524.1	119.7
2014	4094.2	-743.4	86.1	167.8	-1730.8	130.3
2015	4208.1	-740.4	4.8	170.6	-1806.8	138.7
2015	4304.4	-683.5	-22.0	173.5	-2089.9	146.7

Without significant ongoing improvements in energy efficiency in end-use sectors, energy use would have increased 56% between 1990 and 2016 instead of 26%. Energy savings of 2,089.9 PJ are equivalent to the energy use of about 43 million passenger vehicles in 2016.

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Final energy use, with and without energy efficiency improvements, 1990-2016

	Energy use without energy efficiency improvements	Energy use with energy efficiency improvements
1990	6957.2	6957.2
1991	6961.9	6844.1
1992	7144.0	6942.3
1993	7321.0	7066.6
1994	7600.4	7334.3
1995	7961.1	7547.1
1996	8178.4	7678.7
1997	8385.5	7799.7
1998	8361.7	7615.0
1999	8719.6	7801.5
2000	9046.1	8090.5
2001	8924.7	7848.2
2002	9276.4	8111.7
2003	9428.5	8291.5
2004	9635.9	8525.7
2005	9741.3	8453.1
2006	9625.9	8329.8
2007	10006.4	8733.9
2008	9898.9	8594.5
2009	9550.1	8312.9
2010	9835.4	8501.0
2011	10033.4	8748.7
2012	10071.1	8705.2
2013	10405.4	8881.3
2014	10692.2	8961.4
2015	10739.0	8932.2
2016	10876.3	8786.4

Over 112.1 Mt of GHG emissions were avoided in 2016 from all energy efficiency improvements in Canada since 1990. The transportation sector was the largest contributor at 47% of total GHG savings, primarily because of ongoing performance standards for passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks. Other factors were awareness and education programs that increased fuel efficiency through maintenance and improved driving habits. The residential sector contributed 27% to the total GHG savings through several mechanisms including enhanced building codes, minimum energy performance standards for appliances, improved energy monitoring systems and home retrofits. The industrial sector contributed about 19% and the commercial/institutional sector 7% of total GHG savings. Investment challenges and limited programs targeting energy use resulted in less improvement in energy efficiency in these two sectors.

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GHG savings by sector, 2016

	Mt CO2e
Total economy	-112.1
Residential	-30.2
Commercial/institutional	-8.0
Industrial	-21.2
Transportation	-52.7