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Prizes! Pincher Creek Energy & Emissions Series: Climate Change, GHG Emissions, & Alberta
April 11, 2022
Thanks to everyone whom participated in the first edition of this series.
PRIZES
TOP SCORE PRIZE ($20 Harvest gift card & LED bulb)
Randomly selected from participants who aced quiz
Rylan Brown
PARTICPANT PRIZE ($10 Co-op gift card & LED bulb)
Randomly selected from all participants (also happened to ace quiz!)
Kyla Bruns
QUIZ STATS
53 individuals participated in this quiz.
The lowest score was a 1 (No, Bill Nye did not discover climate change and GHG emissions aren’t tracked in Methane per fire!). Better luck next time!
15% of participants aced the quiz (8 respondents), impressive!
Average score was 6.79/9 (75%)
MOST COMMON INCORRECT QUESTIONS
Q) How much GHG emissions did Town & MD owned assets emit in 2019?
A) About the same amount 1200 cars would in a year (~4,000 Tons CO2e)
37% answered correctly
This question was expected to be tough! Many answered that this is impossible to estimate. Most municipal scale GHG estimations are done using location (Alberta) standardized factors based on actual fuel and power usage. Direct measurement of actual emissions (ie. measuring boiler stack chemical composition & flow rates or knowing exact GHG emissions for kW-hr of power used) is not financially feasible on a small scale for many reasons. Conversely, leaks in valves/flanges, or non-fuel/electricity sources of GHG emissions such as methane escape off wastewater lagoons can contribute to overall emissions.
While this adds limitations to the accuracy of estimation, as long as those limitations/exclusions are known, estimation is not impossible. Using regional emissions factors is the preferred method of quantification recommended by the International Panel on Climate Change (as opposed to using country or industry standard factors), which is what the Municipal Energy Program does for estimating local emissions.
Use of emissions factors to quantify GHG emissions does have limitations, but these limitations are not significant enough to dismiss or do nothing about the quantification, comparison, and reductions of emissions.
Q) What is Canada's commitment for GHG emissions reductions by 2050?
A) Net Zero Emissions
67% answered correctly
This is a fairly recent development, one that the Municipal Energy Project Lead was unaware of before looking it up for this quiz! Canada did indeed set and pass The Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act in June, 2021. Among other initiatives, a Net-Zero Advisory Body was setup in February 2021 to engage with Canadians and provide advice to the Government on pathways to achieve this goal. The 16 members have backgrounds in Urban Planning, Oil Sands Innovation, Sustainable/Renewable Energy & Policies, Atmospheric Science, Global Affairs, among others. Expecting iterations to this goal going forward (& as governments change) is reasonable, but the direction of the goal is clear and will likely remain unchanged; significant large-scale GHG emission reductions. The goal will undoubtedly play a huge part in future funding allocations and infrastructure requirements for local governments and businesses.
Find all the answers here!
