Determine industrial reporting obligation

Registration for GHG reporting is required by March 31 each year. To determine whether a facility must register, it must determine, no later than February 28 of the reporting period, whether the facility's total GHG emissions for the calendar year are likely to be greater than or equal to 10,000 tonnes of CO2e.

Operations required to report emissions

Requirements for reporting industrial GHG emissions in British Columbia 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 carbon dioxide equivalent 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. This reporting requirement does not include emissions from biomass listed in Schedule C of the regulation.

In addition, reporting operations emitting 25,000 tonnes or more of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year – and all reporting LNG operations – have a third-party verification requirement. Emissions from reporting-only emission sources are excluded from the calculation of the verification threshold, but are included in the emission report.

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 below).

Single facility operations are specified industrial activities (such as pulp and paper production, electricity generation and mining) 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 facilities operations 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 emission sources types (associated with these activities) that result in greenhouse gas emissions that must be reported – see Schedule A. 

Emission 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 page.

Types of operations that may have an obligation to report include:

  • Aluminum or alumina production
  • Base metals smelting
  • Cement production
  • Chemical/petrochemical production
  • Large commercial or institutional facilities
  • Electricity generation and co-generation (thermal)
  • Electricity transmission (SF6 emissions)
  • Food production
  • Lime manufacturing
  • Manufacturing
  • Mining
  • Non-metallic mineral products manufacturing
  • Oil and gas extraction and gas processing
  • Petroleum refining
  • Pipeline transportation/transmission
  • Pulp and paper production
  • Wood products manufacturing
  • Liquefied natural gas (LNG) operation
  • Electricity import operation

Operations not required to report emissions

The GHG 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 Reporting Regulation.
  • Landfill gas emissions, which have reporting obligations under the Landfill Gas Management Regulation.

Key definitions

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Key definitions as defined in the Reporting Regulation

Term Definition
Reporting operation

A reporting operation is defined as:

(a) a single facility operation that, during the reporting period, has a total amount of attributable greenhouse gas emissions that is greater than or equal to 10 000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, not including carbon dioxide produced from biomass listed in Schedule C.

(b) a linear facilities operation that, during the reporting period, has a total amount of attributable greenhouse gas emissions that is greater than or equal to 10 000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, not including carbon dioxide produced from biomass listed in Schedule C.

(c) an electricity import operation.

Despite (a) and (b) above, a single facility operation or a linear facilities operation that was a reporting operation remains a reporting operation until its emissions, calculated as above, have been below 10,000 t CO2-equivalent for three consecutive reporting periods.
Facility

The term facility includes:

(a) all buildings, structures, stationary items and equipment that:

  • (i) are located or used primarily on a single site, contiguous sites or adjacent sites;
  • (ii) are controlled and directed by the same person; and
  • (iii) function as a single integrated site.

(b) wastewater collection and wastewater treatment  systems that treat waster from a facility, it the systems are on or adjacent to a site or sites referred to in paragraph (a) (i) and are controlled and directed by the person referred to in paragraph (a) (ii);

(c) storage of petroleum products at a terminal that receives petroleum products from a facility, if the terminal is adjacent to a site or sites referred to in paragraph (a) (i) and controlled and directed by the person referred to in paragraph (a) (ii); and

(d) mobile equipment, primarily used at the site or sites referred to in paragraph (a) (i), that functions as part of the integrated site.
Single-facility operation

An industrial operation that involves one or more activities listed in column 2 of Table 1 of Schedule A that are carried out in a single facility, other than a facility that is part of a linear facilities operation.

Linear facility operation

A linear facility operation is either:

(a) an industrial operation that carries out one or more activities listed in column 2 of Table 2 in Schedule A in one or more facilities that are controlled and directed by the same operator, unless the linear facilities operation includes an LNG operation, or

(b) if an operation described in paragraph (a) includes an LNG operation,

  • (i) the portion of the operation that is not an LNG operation, or
  • (ii) the LNG operation
Mobile equipment

The term mobile equipment includes:

(a) mobile equipment used for the on-site transportation or movement of substances, materials or products; and

(b) other mobile equivalent such as tractors, mobile cranes, log transfer equipment, mining machinery, graders, backhoes and bulldozers and other industrial equipment, but does not include an on road vehicle, an aircraft or marine vessel.

(note: on road vehicle is defined in section 1 of the regulation)
Schedule C - biomass exclusions

Wood biomass, or the wood biomass component of mixed fuels, including:

(a) wood residue within the meaning of the Forest Act;

(b) wood-derived fuel, red liquor and black liquor from pulp and paper production processes; and

(c) woody matter from agricultural trimmings, tree thinning and orchard removals.

But not including wood biomass that fails to meet the criteria for carbon neutrality established by the jurisdiction in which it was produced, if any.
Reporting-only emissions Carbon dioxide from biomass listed in Schedule C and greenhouse gas emissions from source types listed in items 2 and 25 of Table 1 of Schedule A.
Electricity import operation An industrial operation that imports electricity generated at an electricity facility located outside British Columbia into British Columbia to the first point of delivery in British Columbia.