Carbon compliance glossary

Federal carbon pricing system for industrial facilities emitting ≥50,000 tCO₂e/yr. Pays per tonne above a sector-specific performance standard.

Under the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (GGPP Act), the Output-Based Pricing System (OBPS) sets a sector-specific emissions intensity benchmark (e.g., 1.49 tCO₂e per tonne of steel). Facilities emitting below the standard earn credits; those above must remit payment at the federal carbon price (currently $95/tCO₂e in 2026).

Canadian federal law strengthening carbon pricing transparency and combating greenwashing. Applies to climate-related claims by businesses.

Bill C-59 amends the Competition Act to add environmental claims provisions. It requires businesses to substantiate climate-related claims with adequate and proper testing. Non-compliance carries penalties up to 10% of global revenues or $10M (whichever is greater) for individuals and $50M+ for corporations.

Canada's public inventory of pollutant releases, disposals, and transfers. Annual report due by June 1.

Operators of facilities meeting NPRI substance or facility thresholds must report annual releases, disposals, and transfers to Environment and Climate Change Canada. NPRI data is publicly searchable and feeds into ECCC's facility benchmarking. Facility thresholds include ≥10 employees and ≥$10M revenue, or ≥20,000 employee-hours.

EU regulation imposing carbon costs on imported goods based on their embedded emissions. Applies to steel, cement, aluminum, fertilizer, electricity, and hydrogen.

CBAM requires EU importers to buy certificates equal to the embedded carbon emissions of imported goods, priced at the EU ETS weekly auction price. The transitional phase (October 2023 – December 2025) requires quarterly reporting of embedded emissions. Full implementation starts January 2026.

ECCC's mandatory facility-level GHG reporting program. Annual report for facilities ≥10,000 tCO₂e/yr.

GHGRP requires single-facility emissions reporting using ECCC's quantification methods. Reporting deadline is June 1 for the prior calendar year. Data feeds into ECCC's National Inventory Report and is the source for the public facility benchmark.

The sector-specific emissions intensity (tCO₂e per unit of production) used to determine OBPS credits or obligations.

Each OBPS-covered sector has a benchmark published in ECCC SOR/2019-313 Schedule 1. Examples: 1.49 tCO₂e/t steel, 0.84 tCO₂e/t clinker, 10.7 tCO₂e/t hydrogen. The standard is updated periodically — verify against current ECCC publications for binding compliance.

Direct GHG emissions from sources owned or controlled by the reporting company.

Examples include emissions from company-owned boilers, furnaces, vehicles, and process chemical reactions. For Ontario manufacturers, Scope 1 typically dominates the carbon footprint and is also the most accurately measurable category using primary facility data.

Indirect emissions from purchased electricity, steam, heating, and cooling consumed by the reporting company.

Scope 2 emissions are calculated using electricity consumption multiplied by a grid emission factor. Ontario's grid is ~90% nuclear and hydro, yielding a low 2024 grid factor of ~30 g CO₂e/kWh — significantly cleaner than most North American jurisdictions.

All other indirect emissions in a company's value chain, both upstream and downstream.

The GHG Protocol defines 15 Scope 3 categories. For manufacturers, Category 1 (purchased goods and services) and Category 4 (upstream transportation) typically dominate. Tier 3 methodologies (mass balance, supplier-specific) are increasingly preferred over Tier 1 (spend-based EEIO) for audit defensibility.

The dollar amount per tonne of CO₂ equivalent charged under federal or provincial carbon pricing systems.

Canada's federal carbon price follows the schedule under the GGPP Act. As of May 15, 2026 (federal-Alberta agreement), the price is $95/tCO₂e in 2026, $100/t for 2027–2029, $115/t by 2030, and reaches $130/t by 2035. Starting 2036, a 1.5% annual escalator applies.

Tier 3 carbon accounting that derives emissions directly from input/output mass flows, fuel slips, and lab assays.

Mass balance ties carbon inputs (raw material carbon content, fuel carbon) to outputs (product carbon, stack losses) using the conservation of mass. For EAF steelmaking, this enables defensible Scope 1 calculation from primary facility documents (MTCs, fuel slips, LIMS exports) rather than emission-factor estimates.

The international standard for corporate greenhouse gas accounting. Foundation for most regulatory frameworks.

The GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (2004, revised 2025) defines Scopes 1, 2, and 3, and provides the calculation methodology for each. It also publishes the Scope 3 Calculation Guidance (2013) and sector-specific extensions.

Document certifying the chemical composition and mechanical properties of a metal product. Primary-data source for material carbon content.

An MTC reports the carbon content (often alongside other alloying elements like Mn, Si, Cr) of a specific heat/lot of steel. VantageHSG uses MTCs as primary inputs to mass-balance Scope 3 calculations, allowing defensible traceability from supplier heat to embedded emissions.

Tier 1 spend-based methodology that estimates emissions from procurement spend using industry-average factors.

EEIO models link economic sector purchases (in dollars) to environmental impacts via industry-average emission factors. Examples include USEEIO, StatCan IO multipliers. Useful when supplier-specific data is unavailable but less accurate than supplier-specific or mass-balance methods.

Steelmaking process that melts scrap steel using electric arcs. Ontario's dominant steelmaking technology.

EAF steelmaking produces steel primarily from recycled scrap, with significantly lower process emissions than blast furnace (BOF) integrated mills. The OBPS performance standard for EAF steel is 1.49 tCO₂e/t steel, compared to higher benchmarks for blast furnace routes.