New Report—Agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in Atlantic Canada

The National Farmers Union (NFU) released a new report: Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Atlantic Provinces: A Comprehensive Assessment.

Taking its data from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), this NFU report provides the most detailed picture yet assembled regarding the sources of agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and soil-carbon changes in the four Atlantic provinces: Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador. This graph illustrates the report’s detail. The report is available at: https://www.nfu.ca/publications/ agricultural-ghg-emissions-in-atlanticcanada/

The NFU believes it is crucial to understand the sources of emissions so that we can find ways to reduce them, and it is crucial to reduce emissions if we are to avoid destructive climate change and safeguard farms and food supplies, as well as the rest of the economy, our communities, and other species.

Nova Scotia farmer Rebecca MacInnis commented on the NFU’s report and the importance of stabilizing the climate: “As a young farmer, I only know agriculture in the context of climate crisis wherein I anticipate extreme and unprecedented weather to be the norm. Last year, Nova Scotia saw historic rainfalls and flooding proceed a period of drought which fit dangerously well into a pattern of more frequent, more extreme weather events. Farmers across the province expressed that 2023 was the worst growing season they had ever seen.”

MacInnis continued: “We must be proactive in combatting the climate crisis. This report clearly identifies the source of our agricultural emissions and should be a call to action for the government to implement policy to support farmers and to protect our food sovereignty and farming futures.”

Key findings of the NFU report on agricultural emissions in Atlantic Canada include:

• Total GHG emissions from agriculture in NS, NB, PEI, and NFLD are declining: down from about 1.8 million tonnes per year carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in the 1990s to about 1.5 million tonnes in recent years.

• The main causes of declining emissions are reductions from cattle (as herd numbers have declined) and from the use of heating oil.

• Partly offsetting these reductions, emissions related to nitrogen fertilizer production and use have increased in recent years, as farmers in the Atlantic provinces mirror trends in the rest of Canada and use more fertilizer.

• Agricultural soils in the Atlantic provinces have been losing carbon over the period of the study, and the rate of loss is increasing in recent years, making those soils a source rather than a sink for GHGs.

The NFU previously published provincial reports on agricultural emissions in Saskatchewan and in Ontario. We have also published three editions of our report on national agricultural emissions. All reports are on the NFU website: