The Greening Government Strategy establishes climate and environmental commitments for the Government of Canada’s internal operations. The Government of Canada’s operations will be net-zero emissions by 2050 including:
• Government owned and leased real property
• Mobility: fleets, business travel and commuting
• Procurement of goods and services
• National safety and security (NSS) operations
To implement net-zero in real property and fleet operations, the Government of Canada will reduce absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions by 40% by 2025 and at least 90% below 2005 levels by 2050. On this emissions reduction pathway, the government will aspire to reduce emissions by an additional 10% each 5 years starting in 2025.
The Government of Canada tracks its energy use and its GHG emissions across 29 departments and agencies. As of fiscal year 2024-25, we have reduced GHG emissions from federal facilities and conventional fleet (excluding NSS) operations by 42.5% from 2005 levels.
The Government of Canada’s Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions result from the energy used for its facilities and fleets:
• facilities comprise office space, defence bases, laboratories, warehouses and other building types
• fleets comprise on-road vehicles and off-road fleets, including cars, vans, trucks, boats, ships and planes. It consists of vehicles and equipment primarily used to transport people and cargo in the conduct of government business.
Updated data for fiscal year 2024 to 2025 shows that GHG emissions continue a downward trend. Operational improvements (e.g. portfolio rationalization, increased energy efficiency) and clean electricity procurement contributed to a reduction of GHG emissions from the previous year (2023-2024).
In addition, some year-to-year changes in GHG emissions may be due to data collection gaps, methodology or error correction refinements, while others may be the result of one-time or specific events or actions (such as natural disasters or operational disruptions). Additionally, variations in seasonal weather conditions (for example, the effect of heating or cooling days on building energy use) also influence annual GHG emissions.
Data for some facilities have been excluded for operational reasons. Therefore, the results of calculations using this data may not align with other published results.