Our Family's Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Carbon Rebate

On July 1, 2019 Yukon started applying a $20/tonne price on carbon dioxide pollution.  At the same time, the government committed to fully returning the levy to residents.

The rebate is currently $43 / person every six month.  We are a family of 3 and we just got our first 6-month rebate of $129 (it came to us a bit late 'cause I was late filing our 2018 income taxes :-( )

So I was curious - are we going to pay more in our pollution "tipping fee" than we get back from the rebate?  Being someone who believes in "let the data reveal the truth" I've been keeping track of our family's greenhouse gas emissions.  Below are the results for the up till end of February:

Methodology

• Gasoline and propane is simply our emissions by volume of gasoline/propane purchased (simply gas receipts)
• Electricity changes from month-to-month because the carbon intensity of the on-grid electricity varies depending on how much is renewable energy (hydropower) and how much is thermal (diesel and LNG).   I calculate the monthly carbon intensity based on the monthly hydro/thermal generation reported by Yukon Energy.
• For flying, I use the typical emission factor for a 737-400 of 3.9kg/km, then I divide by the number of seats and my visual assessment of "load factor" (how full the plane is).  Then I multiply by 2 to account for the radiant forcing effect of emitting those greenhouse gasses at altitude instead of at ground.
• Average Yukoner emissions (red line at top of chart) is from the most recent reliable GHG emissions estimate for the Yukon, which is from 2015 and presented in the Yukon Energy State of Play (Vector Research, 2018).  In 2015 total Yukon emissions are reported as 572,000 tonnes for a population of 37,745--thus about 15 tonnes CO₂e / person.

Observations

• You can see our gasoline usage is pretty steady year-round about 0.4 tonnes/month.  It was much higher in August because we took a camping road trip through northern BC. 
• The Carbon Levy (pollution price) is only paid on gasoline and propane in Yukon.  Joe has conveniently negotiated an "exception" for aviation so Air North gets to dump their garbage in our air for free (my bias is showing!)  Similarly fossil fuels burned to make electricity has been given an "exception" and no pollution fee is charged for electricity generated with diesel or LNG.  
• Thus we as a family only paid our carbon price on the gasoline and propane we burned and not the aviation or emissions from electricity usage.

Results
Over the six-month period of April through September 2019 (the first rebate was nominally issued in October, so presumably for this period), our family's GHG emissions were:

• 51 tonnes of CO₂e total emitted
• 5.1 tonnes of CO₂e that were subject to the pollution fee
• $102 in carbon pollution fees paid
• $129 in rebate
• + $27 difference

So we are ahead! 

But, given all the driving we did in August 2019 (see chart above), I expect that we'll be further ahead once a full year is paid out.

Conclusions
So yes, more is being rebated than paid by us as the Yukon Government predicted.  Thank you carbon polluters?  But why is our family's emissions so much lower than the "average?"  Well for a few reasons:

1. Firstly, the "average" emissions I show above include all government, industrial and commercial emissions as well.  Thus it really isn't representative of an individual family's direct greenhouse gas emissions.
2. We made the choice as a family to try to have a "light" carbon footprint, which includes:

• Making the conscious choice (and accept the cost) to live and work downtown.  Thus we have very short commutes.
• I try to cycle as much as possible year-round.  I'd rather spend my money on nice beer instead of buying gasoline.
• We don't travel a lot - there is lots of fun to be had close to home and lots wild landscapes to explore and experience in southern Yukon. I'm not done exploring home after almost 40 years of living here!
• We have a relatively modest, energy efficient home that we heat primary with wood and have electric backup.  No more nasty heating oil for us.