Data visualization product of the Infrastructure Economic Account: Environmental perspective, 2020

Released: 2021-07-19

Statistics Canada has launched a new component of the Infrastructure Statistics Hub, the Environmental Perspective. This interactive dashboard enables users to see the composition of the main environmental perspective indicators, by province and territory and by infrastructure asset type. The indicators include greenhouse gas emissions caused by the production of infrastructure assets, greenhouse gas emissions per value added, and clean input proportion.

The Environmental Perspective of the Infrastructure Economic Account complements and enhances the analytical capacity already available in the account. By linking two sets of environmental accounts to the Infrastructure Economic Account, a better understanding is gained of the relationship between economic activity and the environment. The first set of accounts, the Physical Flow Accounts, measures greenhouse gas emissions resulting from economic activity. The second set of accounts, the Environmental and Clean Technology Products Economic Account, measures the production and use of goods and services that reduce the negative environmental impacts associated with economic activity.

The Physical Flow Accounts record the greenhouse gas emissions associated with an industry's output, and the Infrastructure Economic Account isolates the production of infrastructure assets by producing industry. This economic activity was linked to the Physical Flow Accounts, on an industry basis, to determine the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the production of infrastructure assets.

Additionally, by linking the Environmental and Clean Technology Products Economic Account to the Infrastructure Economic Account, using the input structure of the supply-use tables, the number of inputs used in the construction of infrastructure considered to be environmental and clean technology products were determined. In general, if infrastructure investment increases, so will the amount that is "clean." However, a ratio of these inputs over time can help determine whether infrastructure assets are using "cleaner" inputs in their overall design.

The combination of the Infrastructure Economic Account, the Physical Flow Accounts and Environmental and the Clean Technology Products Economic Account provides a variety of indicators that can aid in understanding the relationship between investment in infrastructure and the environment. The main indicators include greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the production of infrastructure assets, greenhouse gas emissions per value added and clean input proportion.

Products

The data visualization product "Infrastructure Statistics Hub," which is part of Statistics Canada – Data Visualization Products (Catalogue number71-607-X), is now available.

The Infrastructure Economic Account section, which is part of the Methodological Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (Catalogue number13-607-X), is available.

The publication Clean technologies and the Survey of Environmental Goods and Services: A technical reference guide (Catalogue number16-511-X) is available.

The product Physical flow account for greenhouse gas emissions: Interactive tool (Catalogue number71-607-X) is available.

The Economic Accounts Statistics Portal, accessible from the Subjects module of our website, features an up-to-date portrait of national and provincial economies and their structure.

The Latest Developments in the Canadian Economic Accounts (Catalogue number13-605-X) is available.

The User Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (Catalogue number13-606-G) is available.

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; STATCAN.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.STATCAN@canada.ca).