OTTAWA – Statistics Canada confirms that major lockdowns that significantly reduced car trips last year pushed gasoline consumption to its lowest level in 20 years in the country.
According to the federal agency, Canadians bought 38.6 billion liters of gasoline in 2020, 14% less than the previous year and less than any other year since 2001, when there were fewer vehicles on the roads.
Translated into greenhouse gas emissions, this reduction of approximately six billion liters of gasoline sold is roughly equivalent to removing 3.1 million cars from Canadian roads.
Every province saw its gasoline purchases drop in 2020, but the biggest drop was in Ontario, where lockdowns lasted longer than in most other provinces. Gasoline sales there fell by 18% compared to 2019.
The decline was about 11% in Quebec and New Brunswick, and 12.5% in Alberta.
A study published earlier this year in the journal “Nature Climate Change” indicated that GHG emissions were likely to decrease by 7% globally in 2020, almost entirely due to public health measures aimed at preventing the spread of COVID -19.
But Caroline Brouillette, national policy manager at Climate Action Network Canada, says without structural changes to the way Canadians move from place to place, these emission reductions caused by the pandemic are unlikely to last.
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