The urgency of this situation was confirmed in March 2016 when, for the first time in Canada, first ministers from all provinces and territories agreed to work toward a Pan-Canadian system for verified carbon credits as a means to reducing carbon equivalent emissions. However, for key energy industry sources such as flares, such a system is not implementable without the ability to accurately quantify emissions, especially the enhanced climate forcing impacts associated with emitted black carbon and methane.
The NSERC FlareNet Strategic Network will directly address these critical challenges. Its overall goals are to provide a quantitative understanding of flare generated pollutant emissions, new quantitative measurement techniques, and vital models to assess pollutant emissions and climate impacts. These are critical for enabling science-based regulations, accurate pollutant inventories, understandings of climate forcing and health implications, and engineered mitigation strategies to minimize environmental impacts in the energy sector.
