Environment at a Glance: Canada
Table of contents
The OECD Environment at a Glance Country Notes are designed to support transparent, evidence-based information. They provide concise and descriptive overview of progress across major environmental issues, including climate, air quality, freshwater resources, waste and the circular economy, and biodiversity conservation. They feature selected environmental indicators, building on harmonised datasets available on OECD Data Explorer. Differences with national data sources can occur due to delays in data treatment and publication, or due to different national definitions and measurement methods. See the Reader’s guide to the Environment at a Glance Country Notes for more information.
Canada is the world’s second largest country, covering nearly 10 million km2. It’s open and diversified economy relies more on natural resources than most OECD countries. Canada is a top producer of crude oil, natural gas, primary aluminium and potash. It is also a major exporter of pulp and paper as well as several agricultural commodities, including wheat, canola, soybeans and vegetables. Canadians generally enjoy a high quality of life.
Geography, climate and land use varies widely across the country. A broad belt of coniferous forest, essentially boreal forest, stretches from east to west. Agriculture is concentrated mainly in the south and southwest, while tundra and permanent ice dominate the far north, covering roughly a quarter of Canada’s land area. Much of the country is uninhabited or only sparsely populated, due to the severe climate. Its vast territory hosts a great diversity of terrestrial and marine ecosystems and large tracts of it are undisturbed wilderness. It also hosts about one-quarter of the world’s remaining wetlands and has the world’s longest coastline.
Canada’s natural resources include about 9% of the world’s renewable freshwater supply, 9% of forests and significant reserves of oil, gas, coal and other minerals including copper, nickel, gold, lead, silver, uranium and zinc.
The federal government handles national and international issues like fisheries, oceans, and toxic substances, while provinces manage local land use, resource development and waste spills. Responsibilities for environmental management are shared across the federal government, which oversees matters of national and international significance, including fisheries, oceans and the management of toxic substances, while provincial governments are primarily responsible for land-use planning, natural resource development, and the management of waste and pollution incidents within their jurisdictions.
Canada has relatively decoupled energy supply and production-based (i.e. produced within the territory) carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from real gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Due to its significant energy production, per person production-based and demand-based (or footprint i.e. including emissions incorporated in imported goods) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions remain well above the OECD average but have declined since 2010. Demand-based emissions are lower than production-based ones, meaning that Canada is a net exporter of GHG emissions embodied in final demand (i.e. demand for goods and services by all residents).
The most notable trends in Canada’s emission profile between 2005 and 2024 were from electricity, as well as oil and gas sources. Emissions from electricity generation decreased over this period, driven by the phase-out of coal-fired electricity generation. Oil and gas emissions increased by 5.1%, although emissions peaked in 2014 and have since decreased by 9.6% in 2024, consistent with measured decreases of fugitive methane sources in recent years. Methane emissions reached their lowest reported levels in 2024, decreasing by 31% since 2005 and by 27% since 2012. This was driven by the oil and gas sector, which accounted for almost 80% of the decline. Since the peak of oil and gas methane emissions in 2014, emissions have decreased by 46%, largely in response to federal and provincial regulations designed to reduce methane emissions. The GDP emission intensity for the entire Canadian economy has continued to decline. In 2024 it had declined by 48% since 1990 and by 37% since 2005. (Canada, 2026).
In 2024, the energy industries emitted the largest share (27%) of total GHG emissions (excluding land-use, land-use change and forestry - LULUCF), followed by transport (22%), the residential sector (13%), industrial processes and agriculture (8% each), and waste (3%). When included with emissions from other sectors, emissions from the land use and land-use change (LULUCF) sector accounted for 0.6% of the national total in 2024. CO2 is the largest contributor to total emissions, accounting for 79% of total emissions in 2024, while methane was the second largest contributor, with 15% of the total (Canada, 2026).
Canada is one of the largest crude oil and natural gas producers in the world. Moreover, the country produces one of the largest amounts of hydroelectricity worldwide. Despite a sharp decline in the share of coal, peat and oil shale since 2000, Canada’s energy mix remains dominated by fossil fuels. The share of oil in total energy supply decreased little, from 34.1% in 2000 to 33.5% in 2025, and that of natural gas increased from 29.1% to 41.4%. The shares of renewables and nuclear remained relatively stable, at 15.7% and 7.3%, respectively, in 2025.
Canada’s electricity supply is among the least carbon-intensive in the world, with renewables accounting for 65% in 2025 (mainly from hydro power), complemented by the significant contribution of nuclear energy.
Emissions of non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC), sulphur oxide (SOx), nitrogen oxide (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO) have decreased substantially since 2000, whereas small particulates (PM2.5) emissions decreased in the first half of 2000s to then stabilise, while ammonia (NH3) emissions stagnated. Despite the progress, emission intensities, both per GDP and per person, remain much higher than the OECD average. This is partly explained by Canada’s distinctive economic structure with significant natural resource, mining, oil and gas, transportation and agricultural activities. Industry (including industrial processes and combustion) and transport are the largest emitters of most pollutants. Emissions from both sectors have decreased since 2000. This was mainly due to the installation of new technologies and processes at non-ferrous smelting and refining facilities and the closure of two smelters (which reduced industrial SOx emissions), as well as stricter trucks and vehicles regulations (which drove down NOx emissions). The decline in NOx and SOx emissions also reflects the shift in electricity generation from coal to natural gas.
Concentrations of PM2.5 reduced from 10 microgrammes/m3 in 1990 to 6.3 microgrammes/m3 in 2020. This is just above the World Health Organization threshold of 5 microgrammes/m3. About half of the regions are below the threshold.
Canada is a water-rich country and its freshwater abstractions for public supply are in the range of other OECD countries. Depending on the region, changes in the amount of water flowing in rivers can be linked to changes in weather and climate, along with other drivers such as human development and demand. Due to the disparate reality of settlements across Canada, about 14% of the population is connected to independent treatment systems. Between 2004 and 2023, the percentage of the population that has been connected to advanced tertiary treatment plants increased from about 18.8% to 29.3%. Over the same period the percentage of the population that was not connected to wastewater treatment decreased from about 2.9% to less than 1%.
Data on municipal waste1 show that more than two thirds of generated waste is landfilled. In 2018, waste from households amounted to 424 kg per person. Data for recent years is missing.
Canada’s per person domestic material consumption and material footprint increased up until 2013 and have been relatively stable since 2017. Material productivity has stagnated and remains well below the OECD average. This is largely due to the dominant role of fossil fuel production and exports.
Forests make up over 40% of the land area, with cropland, meadows and pasture making up 6.5%, and 52% being made up of other land uses. About 3 473 km2 of land-use changes were observed between cropland, forest and settlement south of 60 North (the southern territorial border of Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut) from 2010 to 2015. Of these a large proportion (65%) was the conversion of forest to cropland. About 1 215 km2 of cropland and forest were converted to settlement. Urban expansion, due to population growth, often encroaches on cropland, which can result in a conversion of forest land into agricultural land. At the same time, the annual estimated area of deforestation in Canada has declined from about 640 km2 in 1990, to about 492 km2 in 2023. Prior to this period, in the Toronto, London, St. Catharines–Niagara and Windsor metropolitan areas, 85% of the land converted to settlements between 1971 and 2011 was high-value agricultural land. In the same time period, large amounts of forests were also converted to settlement in the Halifax, St. John's, Saint John and Trois-Rivières metropolitan areas.
Scientists have identified over 80 000 species in Canada’s diverse ecosystems and as many more remain to be investigated. Canada has a low percentage of endemic species compared to many countries, but approximately 41 species of vascular plants, mammals and freshwater fish and molluscs are known to be endemic. However, wild species face a variety of threats, including the loss, fragmentation and degradation of habitat, pollution, overexploitation and fishery bycatch, and other incidental loss due to resource harvesting. Conserving wild species promotes biodiversity and maintains ecosystem services that Canadians rely on like pollination, controlling floods, and air and water filtration.
The general status of wild species in Canada has been assessed every 5 years since 2000. Between 2000 and 2020, the proportion of assessed species ranked as secure or apparently secure has varied between 70% and 80%. This variation is mainly due to the assessment of additional species. Of the 24 483 native species assessed, 80% are ranked as secure or apparently secure, 20% are at some risk of extirpation (ranked as vulnerable, imperilled or critically imperilled) and 135 species are presumed extirpated or possibly extirpated (no longer found in Canada).
Canada hosts a remarkable diversity of tundra, forest, grassland, freshwater and ocean ecosystems. Over 40% of land is covered with forests and woodlands, representing about 9% of the world’s total forest cover. It has been estimated that Canada has about 25% of the world’s wetlands, occupying roughly 14% of the country’s area. Approximately 8 500 rivers and over 2 million freshwater lakes cover almost 9% of Canada’s total surface area.
Native prairie grassland ecosystems have undergone the most extensive modification of any of Canada’s major ecological units, mostly through conversion to agricultural land. Human interventions, mainly dyking and draining for agriculture and urban areas, resulted in an estimated loss of up to 65% of Atlantic coastal marshes, up to 68% of southern Ontario wetlands, up to 70% of prairie wetlands and up to 88% of freshwater wetlands in the Lower Fraser Valley, British Columbia. The quality of sea ice has also changed, with an increase in younger, thinner ice and a decrease in the older, multi-aged and thicker ice. Increasing numbers of species of landbirds, seabirds, freshwater fish, reptiles and freshwater mussels are imperilled. Most populations of caribou are declining (CBD).
At the end of 2024, Canada had conserved 12.9% of its terrestrial area, as well as 9.1% of its marine territory (exclusive economic zone). Terrestrial areas conserved have increased by 13.4% in the last 5 years, while marine areas by only 2.5%. More efforts are needed to achieve the 2030 GBF target (under the Convention on Biological Diversity) of protecting 30% of terrestrial and inland water areas, and of marine and coastal areas.
This section shows selected policy instruments based on data available for most OECD countries and does not provide a complete overview of countries’ policy mix to achieve their environment-related objectives. Interpretation should consider the country specific context.
The share of environmentally related tax revenue in GDP has remained stable at about 1.2%, below the OECD average. Its share in total revenues is between 3% and 4% and is dominated by the energy base. Data for recent years is missing.
In total, 74.6% of GHG emissions in Canada were subject to a positive Net Effective Carbon Rate2(ECR) in 2023. Explicit carbon prices consist of emissions trading systems (ETS) permit prices and carbon taxes, which covered 72.5% of GHG emissions in CO2 equivalent. With roughly 42.3% of total GHG emissions, coverage is largest for ETS. Fuel excise taxes, an implicit form of carbon pricing, covered 22.9% of emissions in 2023. About 19% of GHG emissions have a Net ECR above EUR 60 per tonne of CO2 equivalent, a mid-range estimate of current carbon costs. Net ECRs are highest in the road transport sector, which accounts for 18.6% of the country’s total GHG emissions. The Net ECR is on average positive in all sectors (OECD, Pricing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2024: Gearing Up to Bring Emissions Down, 2024).
The environmental share of government research and development (R&D) budget has remained fairly stable between 4% and 5% since 2000, a lower share than the energy sector. After a peak during 2015-17, the share of renewables in energy public research, demonstration and development (RD&D) budget has hovered around 10%. With an average of 14 environmentally related inventions per million person by national residents in 2021-23, below the OECD average (21), Canada is a relatively minor player in environmentally related innovation. The share of environmentally related in total inventions has followed closely the OECD area trend, with a decline in recent years, to reach 7% in 2023.
Canada channels its official development assistance (ODA) mainly through multilateral organisations as earmarked funding and the public sector, with a focus on poverty and gender. Canada’s total ODA decreased in 2025, representing 0.32% of gross national income.
In 2023-2024, Canada committed 20.1% of its total bilateral allocable ODA in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions, down from 30.7% in 2021-2022 and well below the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) average of 39%. With about 15% of bilateral aid for climate change (mostly adaptation) in recent years, Canada is below the DAC standards. After an increase during 2013-18, ODA for climate has remained fairly stable below 20%. The shares of ODA for biodiversity and desertification are also low (OECD, 2026).
References
Canada. (2026). National inventory report 1990 to 2024: greenhouse gas sources and sinks in Canada 2026. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/climate-change/greenhouse-gas-emissions/inventory.html
CBD. (n.d.). Country profiles: Canada. Retrieved from https://www.cbd.int/countries/profile?country=ca
IEA. (2022). Canada 2022 Energy Policy Review. OECD Publishing, Paris. doi:10.1787/a440d879-en
OECD. (2017). Environmental Performance Reviews: Canada. OECD Publishing, Paris. doi:10.1787/9789264279612-en
OECD. (2024). Pricing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2024: Gearing Up to Bring Emissions Down. OECD Series on Carbon Pricing and Energy Taxation, OECD Publishing, Paris. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/topics/policy-sub-issues/carbon-pricing-and-energy-taxes/carbon-pricing-canada.pdf
OECD. (2026). Development Co-operation Profiles. OECD Publishing, Paris. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/development-co-operation-profiles_04b376d7-en/canada_0c742aaa-en.html
Further reading
CESI (2024), Air indicators, https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/air.html
CESI (2023), Canada's conserved areas, https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/conserved-areas.html
CESI (2023), General status of wild species, https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/general-status-wild-species.html
CESI (2021), Land-use change, https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/land-use-change.html
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← 1. Canada’s data on municipal waste treatment refer to residential and non-residential sources, including industrial waste and demolition and construction waste.
← 2. Effective Carbon Rate (ECR) is the sum of fuel excise taxes, carbon taxes and tradeable permits that effectively put a price on carbon emissions. The Net ECR equals the ECR minus fossil fuel subsidies that decrease pre-tax fossil fuel prices.