A report released Friday on potential greenhouse gas emissions from northern energy projects shows that one liquefied natural gas pipeline and terminal alone would add over three million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year into the atmosphere.

Five LNG terminals are under consideration, three at Kitimat and two at Prince Rupert. The entire province of B.C. emits 62 million tonnes according to provincial government figures.

The report, Jobs and Tonnes, prepared by the Pembina Institute for the environmental group ForestEthics Advocacy, compares greenhouse gas emissions from northern energy projects with the number of jobs they are expected to create and concludes that they will have a greenhouse gas footprint that is 400 times higher per job than the existing northwest salmon industry.

“We are saying these projects need to be thought of in terms of their cumulative impact,” said Karen Tam Woo, ForestEthics Advocacy campaigner. “It seems like there is a new gold rush in B.C. and there hasn’t been a full understanding by the public on what the full impact of shipping LNG is.”

The report focuses on Enbridge’s Northern Gateway diluted bitumen pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat; a proposal by Shell Canada to develop coalbed methane in the Klappen region of northwestern B.C.; and on Kitimat LNG, which proposes to build an LNG terminal at Kitimat connected by pipeline to the northeastern B.C. gas fields. Together, the three would emit more than 21 million tonnes a year of greenhouse gases. Most of that — 17.75 million tonnes, would be generated by Northern Gateway. The report includes upstream releases as well, meaning that in the case of Northern Gateway, all the greenhouse gases produced in extracting the oil from the oilsands in Alberta is taken into account.

The KLNG project provides a clearer picture of the greenhouse gas trade-offs within B.C. alone.

The report shows it could produce 3.37 million tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, including upstream emission in producing the gas, and provide 50 permanent jobs, equal to 15 jobs for every million tonnes emitted. The salmon industry, by comparison, would create 34,485 jobs if it produced a million tonnes of greenhouse gases.

The Klappen project, which is currently under a development moratorium, would emit .94 million tonnes, equivalent to 61 jobs per million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

Tam Wu said ForestEthics Advocacy’s goal in releasing the report is to initiate debate on the greenhouse gas impacts of energy development in B.C.

The issue of cumulative impacts of energy projects is gaining traction in the province’s northwest, where a Smithers-based research organization, The Bulkley Valley Research Centre, is hosting a three-day conference in November on the environmental, social and economic impacts of the new wave of resource development.

“What would it do to this region if even five of the 20-plus proposed projects hit?” he said.

“We want to be informed. It’s not as if we want a forecast of what’s going to happen. We want to be aware.” said Rick Budhwa, research program manager for the centre. “It’s a really complicated picture out there.

“There is no regulatory framework moving forward and folks don’t know who to talk to or who listens to who.

He said even where there is information, it is not often compatible with other information.

Budhwa said the Bulkley Valley Research Centre is not loyal to any particular side in the debate over cumulative impacts.

“We are not an advocacy organization. We are about science.”

The Smithers conference is set for Nov. 14-16.

ghamilton@vancouversun.com