Barry Saxifrage

Visual Carbon Columnist Cortes Island

About Barry Saxifrage

Barry Saxifrage is Canada's National Observer's resident chart geek and climate analyst. In his visual carbon columns, Saxifrage deconstructs the data behind global warming and Canada's climate targets, as he charts international progress and graphically documents failures by industry and governments. His work is cited frequently by academics and climate publications internationally, including by George Monbiot in The Guardian, Yale Climate Connections, Bill McKibben's New Yorker newsletter, The Times Colonist, and many others. When he's not analyzing the corporate reports of major oil companies or comparing Canada's government's promises against Canada's actual emissions, Saxifrage is an avid soccer player.

96 Articles

Canada's accelerating forest carbon crisis

Canada's forests are being logged faster than they are growing back, writes columnist Barry Saxifrage. That's pouring billions of tonnes of CO2 into our rapidly destabilizing climate.

Reports from the Race to a Safer World

Analysis | May 17th 2022

Climate pollution changes in OECD nations 2010-2019

Canada is a rogue super-emitter

When it comes to climate action, Canada is increasingly out of step with our peers, says columnist Barry Saxifrage.

Reports from the Race to a Safer World

Analysis | April 14th 2022

File photo of Alberta oilsands facility by Kris Krug

Canada’s failure to cut emissions is coming back to bite us

Decades of rising emissions are saddling Canadians with ever-steeper climate targets. And columnist Barry Saxifrage has the receipts.

Reports from the Race to a Safer World

Analysis | April 11th 2022

Canada’s Top 10 emission changes show what’s worked and what’s failed

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, those who fail to learn from their climate polluting history are doomed to repeat it, writes columnist Barry Saxifrage.

Reports from the Race to a Safer World

Analysis | April 5th 2022

Canada map covered in fossil fuel exhaust

Wrong-way Canada emitting more while our G7 peers clean up

Canada is the only G7 nation still emitting far above 1990 levels — and we are still heading in the wrong direction, writes columnist Barry Saxifrage.

Reports from the Race to a Safer World

Analysis | March 23rd 2022

Graphic of gas pump and car charger. Credit: Barry Saxifrage at visualCarbon

High gas prices? Some Canadians are filling up for under 35 cents a ‘litre’

Columnist Barry Saxifrage breaks down how much it costs right now to power a car with gasoline versus electricity in cities across Canada.

Reports from the Race to a Safer World

Analysis | March 15th 2022

View of trees killed by fire, drought and insects in B.C.'s Stein Valley Park

How B.C.’s forests became a carbon-spewing liability

British Columbia's valuable carbon sink is gone. Its forests are hemorrhaging CO2. And the wood harvested from the province is now adding fuel to our climate crisis.

Reports from the Race to a Safer World

Analysis | March 4th 2022

Climate snapshot: Driving off the climate cliff in Alberta versus Norway

Same number of new cars. Five times more CO2 to drive them around.

Reports from the Race to a Safer World

Analysis | February 25th 2022

Climate snapshot: Bay du Nord

The International Energy Agency has clearly stated that no new sources of fossil fuels can be developed if humanity wants to keep the climate crisis within the guardrails set in the global Paris Agreement. The oil industry in Canada, however, shows no sign it plans to do what's needed voluntarily.

Reports from the Race to a Safer World

Analysis, Energy | February 23rd 2022

Canada's fossil fuel burning is flooding our energy mix, pushing out cleaner electricity.

‘Electrify homes’? Canadians sticking with fossil methane

This is the final article in a three-part series on "Electrify Everything" in Canada. It covers one of our most electrified sectors: Residential buildings.

Reports from the Race to a Safer World

Analysis, Energy | December 16th 2021