Canada - Coal rents (% of GDP)

Coal rents (% of GDP) in Canada was 0.062 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.419 in 1982, while its lowest value was 0.043 in 1970.

Definition: Coal rents are the difference between the value of both hard and soft coal production at world prices and their total costs of production.

Source: Estimates based on sources and methods described in "The Changing Wealth of Nations: Measuring Sustainable Development in the New Millennium" (World Bank, 2011).

See also:

Year Value
1970 0.043
1971 0.057
1972 0.059
1973 0.065
1974 0.108
1975 0.277
1976 0.258
1977 0.279
1978 0.288
1979 0.262
1980 0.277
1981 0.377
1982 0.419
1983 0.287
1984 0.301
1985 0.311
1986 0.219
1987 0.125
1988 0.140
1989 0.177
1990 0.180
1991 0.181
1992 0.139
1993 0.115
1994 0.095
1995 0.165
1996 0.171
1997 0.155
1998 0.118
1999 0.069
2000 0.068
2001 0.112
2002 0.086
2003 0.071
2004 0.142
2005 0.153
2006 0.154
2007 0.110
2008 0.375
2009 0.198
2010 0.247
2011 0.311
2012 0.164
2013 0.105
2014 0.079
2015 0.067
2016 0.080
2017 0.090
2018 0.085
2019 0.062

Development Relevance: Accounting for the contribution of natural resources to economic output is important in building an analytical framework for sustainable development. In some countries earnings from natural resources, especially from fossil fuels and minerals, account for a sizable share of GDP, and much of these earnings come in the form of economic rents - revenues above the cost of extracting the resources. Natural resources give rise to economic rents because they are not produced. For produced goods and services competitive forces expand supply until economic profits are driven to zero, but natural resources in fixed supply often command returns well in excess of their cost of production. Rents from nonrenewable resources - fossil fuels and minerals - as well as rents from overharvesting of forests indicate the liquidation of a country's capital stock. When countries use such rents to support current consumption rather than to invest in new capital to replace what is being used up, they are, in effect, borrowing against their future.

Limitations and Exceptions: This definition of economic rent differs from that used in the System of National Accounts, where rents are a form of property income, consisting of payments to landowners by a tenant for the use of the land or payments to the owners of subsoil assets by institutional units permitting them to extract subsoil deposits.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The estimates of natural resources rents are calculated as the difference between the price of a commodity and the average cost of producing it. This is done by estimating the world price of units of specific commodities and subtracting estimates of average unit costs of extraction or harvesting costs (including a normal return on capital). These unit rents are then multiplied by the physical quantities countries extract or harvest to determine the rents for each commodity as a share of gross domestic product (GDP).

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Environment Indicators

Sub-Topic: Natural resources contribution to GDP