A United Nations report has ranked Calgary the fifth-highest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions on a per capita basis in the world.

Alberta’s largest city emitted 17.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide per person in 2003, according to the UN Environment Programme’s paper on urban environments.

Comparatively, each person in the City of Toronto emitted 9.5 tonnes in 2004, whereas Vancouver residents were each responsible for 4.9 tonnes in 2006 (placing both cities roughly in the middle of the 50 urban centres included in the survey).

The only four cities ranking above Calgary were Minneapolis (18.34 tCO2e/capita in 2005), Washington, D.C. (19.70 tCO2e/capita in 2005), Denver (21.5 tCO2e/capita in 2005), and Rotterdam, Netherlands (29.80 tCO2e/capita in 2005).

Calgary is often association with poor environmental practices on account of the city's proximity and corporate ties to the tar sands operations, which have come to be routinely vilified in the international press.

Rotterdam’s exceptionally high rate of emissions can largely be attributed to its massive sea port, which attracts ocean-going, carbon-spewing vessels that service much of Europe.

The three cities included in the report with the lowest emissions were Sydney, Australia (0.88 tCO2e/capita in 2006), Dhaka, Bangladesh (0.63 tCO2e/capita in an unspecified year), and Kathmandu, Nepal (0.12 tCO2e/capita in an unspecified year).

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