Canada saw a modest rise in greenhouse gas emissions in 2009-10, prompting green groups to warn that the country was unlikely to meet its goal of cutting emissions 17 per cent by 2020 against 2005 levels.

The latest figures from the National Inventory Report show that emissions rose 0.25 per cent in 2009-10 to 692 megatons, meaning that deep emission reductions will be required over the coming years if the government is to reach its target of annual emissions of 607 megatons by 2020.

Canada controversially withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol international climate change agreement last year, but ministers insisted they remained committed to curbing greenhouse gas emissions and have retained a voluntary target to cut emissions by 17 per cent against 2005 levels by the end of the decade.

Environment Minister Peter Kent said that while emissions had risen 0.25 per cent the Canadian economy had grown 3.2 per cent over the same period, suggesting emission reduction efforts were working.

“While our continued economic recovery remains our government’s top priority, today’s news demonstrates that our work to balance the need for a cleaner and healthier environment while protecting jobs and growth is working,” he said in a statement.

However, environmental groups warned that with the latest data also showing that emissions from carbon-intensive tar sands developments rose 48 per cent during 2009-10 the country was increasingly unlikely to meet its 2020 target.

“We are still well off course for meeting our emissions target, and without a national plan we’re likely to see Canada’s emissions continue to grow,” PJ Partington, climate policy analyst at the Pembina Institute think-tank, told the Reuters news agency.