Greenhouse Gas Emissions Information for Decision Making A Framework Going Forward (2022) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
3 Structural and Technical Limitations of the Current Greenhouse Gas Emissions Information Landscape
3 Structural and Technical Limitations of the Current Greenhouse Gas Emissions Information Landscape
Pages 53-68
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 53... ...
. In addition, UNFCCC reporting requirements only include anthropogenic GHG emissions and sinks across five sectors.
|
From page 54... ...
For example, the latest U.S. GHG inventory reports CO2 emissions from all combustion sources within the natural gas value chain under the Fossil Fuel Combustion source category, while methane and CO2 emissions from flaring are reported under the Natural Gas Systems source category.
|
From page 55... ...
Figure 3-1 provides some examples of existing organizations, programs, and projects across spatial scales. At the global scale, this includes the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites coordinating satellite observation systems; the World Meteorological Organization program Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System (IG3IS)
|
From page 56... ...
Environmental Protection Agency GHG Reporting Program; WMO IG3IS, World Meteorological Organization Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System. BOX 3-1 International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO)
|
From page 57... ...
We do not exhaustively review all forms of activity data here but use a series of example activity-based information that provides common example limitations to activity data. The simplest example involves the estimation of energy-related GHG emissions from fossil fuel combustion.
|
From page 58... ...
. However, it is important to note that national emissions inventories are complete emission time series based on updated activity data over the period of interest.
|
From page 59... ...
As with the activity data, the simplest and most widely used emission factor data, particularly when considering fuel combustion-related GHG emissions, is the carbon content of fuel. It is critical for these emission factors to be representative of the country, area, sector, and time of interest to provide accurate combustion-related emissions estimates (IPCC, 2006, 2019a)
|
From page 60... ...
. Furthermore, corporate inventories developed annually as part of either regulatory or voluntary requirements, such as Corporate Sustainability Reports, generally employ a similar accounting framework on the use of emission factors and activity data to report their direct (Scope 1)
|
From page 61... ...
, and thus are comparable to estimates from other subnational scales; however, emissions estimates may not be comparable because of the choice of emission factors and activity data. Particularly for activity data, the system boundary of subnational entities such as cities can be difficult to define (e.g., traffic emissions)
|
From page 62... ...
This episode provided an unprecedented opportunity to test how different greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions information systems could detect unexpected GHG emissions changes, while also highlighting current challenges of providing timely, responsive GHG emissions information to decision makers and the public.
|
From page 63... ...
There are limited atmospheric boundary layer height (ABLH; the lowest layer of the atmosphere in which GHG emissions get diluted observations) and there are large uncertainties in atmospheric transport models that need such observations to improve the representation of the ABLH.
|
From page 64... ...
Not only do many air pollutants have common sources with GHGs, but air pollutant inventories also contain many of the same activity-based information relevant to developing GHG emissions inventories. Emissions inventories and measurements of air pollutants may not be co-located with GHG measurements or performed by different entities, hindering the ability of these independent measurements to constrain atmospheric-based estimates of GHG emissions.
|
From page 65... ...
. Limitations of Hybrid Approaches As discussed in Chapter 2, integration of activity- and atmospheric-based approaches and other information has the potential to offer more robust and comprehensive GHG emissions information.
|
From page 66... ...
A major challenge to achieve hybrid approaches that seek to leverage and integrate the rapid proliferation of Earth observation (EO) data, nontraditional data (e.g., open social activity data)
|
From page 67... ...
. Analyzing and integrating these data pose a major challenge, and even with data integration solutions such as data cubes, which aim to provide an interface for users to interact with large spatiotemporal EO data, quality is a major concern because most lack data quality or uncertainty information within metadata records (Giuliani et al., 2019)
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.