Determining an industrial reporting obligation

Industrial operations in B.C. may be required to report their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the Province depending on the amount emitted each year.

On this page

• Operations required to report emissions
• Types of operations that may have an obligation to report
• Operations not required to report emissions
• Reporting obligation for opt-ins under the B.C. Output-Based Pricing System

Operations required to report emissions

Requirements for reporting industrial GHG emissions in B.C. are based on three key factors:

• Quantity of emissions
• Type of operation
• Type of activity

Quantity

Operations that emit 10,000 tonnes or more of CO₂e emissions per year – and those that have emitted more than 10,000 tonnes in any of the previous three years – are required to report emissions. Emissions from biomass listed in Item 1 of Schedule C of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting Regulation must be reported but do not count toward the 10,000 tonne threshold.

In addition, reporting operations emitting 25,000 tonnes or more of CO₂e emissions during either the current reporting cycle or any of the previous three reporting cycles – and all regulated operations – have a third-party verification requirement. Emissions from Item 1 of Schedule C of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting Regulation are excluded from the verification threshold.

Type of operation

The Greenhouse Gas Emission Reporting Regulation distinguishes between a single facility operation, a linear facilities operation, and an electricity import operation. See key definitions.

Single facility operations are reporting operations where specified industrial activities are carried out at a single facility by an operator and with sources of GHG emissions listed in Schedule A, Table 1. Both single and linear facility operations have requirements to report on emissions from general stationary combustion. Only single-facility operations have a requirement to report on emissions from mobile equipment.

Linear facility operations are reporting operations where oil and gas activities are carried out at one or more (typically smaller) facilities that are controlled and directed by the same operator and encompass industrial activities listed in Table 2 of Schedule A, including:

• oil and gas extraction and gas processing activities
• electricity transmission
• natural gas transmission, natural gas distribution, or natural gas storage
• liquefied natural gas (LNG) activities
• oil transmission
• carbon dioxide transmission

Type of activity

Activities listed in Table 1 are also applicable to linear facilities operations if they are carried out at these operations.

The regulation includes a detailed list of activities (associated with industrial production, manufacturing, processing and refining) and emissions source types (associated with these activities) that result in GHG emissions that must be reported – see Schedule A. 

Emissions quantification methodologies are prescribed for each activity, in Column 5 of Schedule A, Table 1 and 2 of the regulation. For further details, see the emissions quantification methodologies.

Types of operations that may have an obligation to report

Operations that may be required to report emissions include:

Operations not required to report emissions

The Greenhouse Gas Emission Reporting Regulation does not apply to:

• Public sector organizations (provincial government and other provincial public sector organizations), which are subject to the Carbon Neutral Government Regulation under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act
  • Exceptions to this are BC Hydro electricity generation and electricity transmission emissions, which are included in the GHG Emission Reporting Regulation
• Landfill gas emissions, which have reporting obligations under the Landfill Gas Management Regulation