Barry Saxifrage
Climate Analyst | Vancouver
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.
U.K. puts Canada to shame with bold 2035 climate target
The British just set their 2035 target at an eye-opening 81 per cent below their 1990 emissions. Canada will set a 2035 target in a few days. Here’s where both nations are today.
Canada is out of excuses. Europe slashes climate pollution while we flounder
Canadians are running out of excuses for our sky-high emissions. Not only is the EU cutting emissions as a group, but every one of its 27 member nations (except the tiny island nation of Cyprus) has as well.
What this year's California megafire tells us about the future
Fossil fuel pollution has been searing the golden state into a hot, dry tinderbox. The megafires have followed in accelerating frequency and fury -- charts.
Canada's climate pollution rises for third straight year in 2023
The path to Canada's 2030 climate target has become dizzyingly steep. Here’s a series of charts showing how adrift Canadians are now
Save a buck a litre? Canadian EV drivers do just that every day
Here's how much cheaper it is in major Canadian cities to charge an electric vehicle at home vs buying an equivalent amount of gasoline at the pump…
Are Canadians paying ‘wacko’ high gasoline taxes?
The “axe the carbon tax” chants are back. This time the claim is that it has driven Canada’s gasoline taxes too high. Does the data support the claim? Barry Saxifrage takes a look at the numbers.
The great Canadian climate divide
Western Canada has a lot of explaining to do. Canada’s recently released greenhouse gas inventory shows that every western province has increased its climate pollution since 1990.
Germany and the U.K. have cut their climate pollution in half. Here’s how Canada stacks up
They’ve been cutting emissions for decades. When are we going to do our fair share?
How your province rates in the global electric car race
These charts show where Canada and our provinces are in the global EV race compared to the U.S., China and European nations … and critically, how that compares to our growing fossil-fuelled fleet.
CO2 jumped by record amount last year
Despite decades of global efforts to prevent a full-blown climate crisis, the primary driver of it — CO2 — continues to pile up in our atmosphere at an accelerating rate.