The Yukon is switching up how it tracks its carbon footprint in the territory.

Historically, the territory has relied on Environment Canada’s annual National Inventory Reports (NIR) to supply the territory’s data for greenhouse gas emissions.

But officials at the Yukon’s Department of Environment had concerns about the NIR.

“There had been a hunch that Environment Canada was under-reporting,” said Kirsten Burrows, a senior analyst with Environment Yukon’s Climate Change Secretariat.

And so, the government commissioned a report by Research Northwest in 2013 to gain a better understanding of Yukon’s emissions in the transportation sector.

Its main finding was that Environment Canada’s NIRs had been “substantively” under-reporting the territory’s emissions – to the point of significant inaccuracy.

In 2009, actual emissions in the territory’s transportation sector were 70 per cent higher than what was stated by the NIR.

The next year, emissions were actually 92 per cent higher than what was in the federal government’s report – which had actually suggested that Yukon’s greenhouse gas emissions have been declining.

In those two years alone, emissions rose 11 per cent.

Where the NIRs went wrong was in its main source of data – the Report on Energy Supply and Demand in Canada (RESD).

These data cover all refining companies, wholesalers and distributors in Canada but do not include fuel shipped into the territory from a secondary distributor in Alberta or fuel imported from Alaska.

“There’s quite a bit of fuel that’s not included,” Burrows said.

What Northern Research concluded was that using fuel tax data from the Department of Finance provided more accurate results – by calculating the tax that the government collects from fuel sold in the territory.

“Finance tracks all fuel imported to the Yukon from any source,” the Northern Research report stated.

“How confident are we that the recalculated emissions offered here are accurate? Very confident.”

The report was updated last March. The major finding was that on-road gasoline use and diesel use were responsible for half of the territory’s total amount of emissions, each accounting for 25 per cent of the total.

This finding contradicted a point from the NIR – that heavy-duty diesel use dominates the Yukon’s transportation emissions.

Both of the transportation reports conclude that it may be worthwhile for the Yukon to branch away from Environment Canada data and start working on something independently.

“Environment Canada is also open to provinces and territories developing their own emission reporting that will better reflect the realities in each jurisdiction,” the March 2015 report stated.

The discrepancies between the NIR and Research Northwest came to the forefront in the legislative assembly this week.

“How can Yukoners take this government seriously on climate change when their emissions data can be up to 75 per cent off what is actually being reported?” NDP MLA Kate White asked the Yukon Party government this week.

The first time the question was raised, the Yukon NDP did not receive much of an answer from the other side of the house.

Environment Minister Wade Istchenko said the issue is both important and a focus for the government. He added he looks forward to discussing how climate change affects the North at COP21, the upcoming global climate change conference in Paris.

The next day, NDP Leader Liz Hanson raised the question again.

One issue she touched on was that the last available report from the Yukon government on its emissions from its own operations was from 2012.

“In 2012 (the latest data year available), the Yukon government emitted 40.7 kilotonnes of verified GHG emissions, down 2.3 per cent from its 2010 base year,” the 2015 State of the Environment report states.

Another issue Hanson raised was that the Yukon delegation heading to Paris will be “armed with inaccurate data.”

This time, Istchenko declared that the Department of Environment is preparing the next climate change action plan progress report.

“(It) will provide a detailed update on the Yukon sector-by-sector specific targets and actions,” he said.

Though the department is hard at work preparing this document, Burrows indicated it may not be ready for months.

The department, she said, is moving forward on creating made-in-Yukon emissions reports, moving away from Environment Canada, and is hoping to update them on an ongoing basis.

The Yukon delegates to Paris will include Premier Darrell Pasloski, the opposition party leaders, Grand Chief Ruth Massie of the Council of Yukon First Nations, a youth ambassador and other government staff. The issue is likely to be a hot topic in the coming weeks.

Part of the COP21 process includes countries putting forward targets for emission cuts – with the ultimate goal of having each country quash global warming from rising more than 2 C above pre-industrial times.

The United Nations-sponsored summit will run from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11.