Cycling in Waterloo Region

[tomh009]

Transportation is 28% of CO2 emissions in Canada.
http://climatechangeconnection.org/emiss...by-sector/
Of that, road transportation is about two thirds (or about 19%); the remainder is primarily air and rail.

Our region is not the same as Canada:
http://www.climateactionwr.ca/wp-content...r-Path.pdf
Page 12, regionally our transportation emissions are 49% of our total emissions in 2015.

So the Waterloo Region numbers say 49% for road transportation; Canadian one is 19%.  Our region isn't that much different from the rest of Canada, really, is it?  Waterloo Region has zero for air transport and rail transport.  Either the methodology of the two calculations is significantly different -- or the Waterloo Region numbers are skewed by the limited geographic scope (for example, no flights included; what hydro generation is included?; how does it account for, say, 401 traffic that might originate/terminate/pass through the region?).

In general, I think that the smaller the area, the more difficult it is to get meaningful numbers.  With Canada as the scope, most of the activity is contained within Canada.  At the other extreme, for my block, almost no activity is entirely contained within my block.  Still the Waterloo Region numbers are useful for assessing the impact of CO2 reduction activities.

All that said, we can agree to disagree on the portion of transportation emissions.  For me, the 28% makes sense (in the US, EPA estimates transportation at 27%), and it's still significant.  If you prefer to focus on the Waterloo Region calculation, that's OK with me, but then let's make sure we at least specify the scope when we say 28% or 49%.