Spectrum analysis of national greenhouse gas emission: a case study of Germany

Abstract

It is essential to abstract the key information from accounting results of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions because it can provide a highly generalized and clear picture of GHG emissions, which is especially helpful for the public and policy makers. To clearly display the composition of GHG emissions, the concept of spectrum analysis is introduced and defined in this paper. Next, a multilayer analysis framework for national GHG emissions was proposed, which is represented by a pyramid of three layers: total emissions (first layer), emissions decomposed by gas type or sector (second layer), and emissions decomposed by both gas type and sector (third layer). Based on the analysis results from the first to third layers, the main compositional information of national GHG emissions was gradually summarized and analyzed until a spectrum of GHG emissions was acquired. The spectrum of GHG emissions displays the compositional structure of national GHG emissions in the different layers, which is helpful in identifying priorities for emissions reduction. A case study of Germany’s GHG emissions during 1990–2012 was conducted, which indicated that CO₂ and the energy sector were the biggest contributors to the total GHG emissions. Some suggestions for reducing GHG emissions are offered based on the obtained results. And the potential development of spectrum analysis for GHG emissions is also expected from aspects of both research and technology.

Keywords

Greenhouse gas emissions / Spectrum analysis / Sectoral decomposition / Multilayer analysis framework / Germany

References

[1] CDIAC (Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center) (2015) Fossil-fuel CO₂ emissions. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/emis/meth_reg.html. Accessed on 17 June 2016

[2] Chang TC, Lin SJ. Grey relation analysis of carbon dioxide emissions from industrial production and energy uses in Taiwan. J Environ Manag, 1999, 56(4): 247-257

[3] Chen ZM, Chen GQ. Embodied carbon dioxide emission at supra-national scale: a coalition analysis for G7, BRIC, and the rest of the world. Energy Policy, 2011, 39(5): 2899-2909

[4] Chen GQ, Zhang B. Greenhouse gas emissions in China 2007: inventory and input–output analysis. Energy Policy, 2010, 38: 6180-6193

[5] Choi K-H, Ang BW. A time-series analysis of energy-related carbon emissions in Korea. Energy Policy, 2001, 29(13): 1155-1161

[6] Christen A, Coops NC, Kellett R, Crawford B, Heyman E, Olchovski I, Tooke R, van der Laan M (2010) A LiDAR-based urban metabolism approach to neighbourhood scale energy and carbon emissions modelling. University of British Columbia. https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/42442. Accessed on 17 June 2016

[7] de Jong B, Anaya C, Masera O, Olguín M, Paz F, Etchevers J, Martínez RD, Guerrero G, Balbontín C. Greenhouse gas emissions between 1993 and 2002 from land-use change and forestry in Mexico. For Ecol Manag, 2010, 260: 1689-1701

[8] Dhakal S (2004) Urban energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in Asian mega-cities: Polices for sustainable future. http://cleanairinitiative.org/portal/node/2385. Accessed on 17 June 2016

[9] Duan J. The study on business growth process management entropy model. Phys Procedia, 2012, 24: 2105-2110

[10] EDGAR (Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research), Joint Research Center, European Commission (2015) CO₂ time series 1990–2014 per region/country. http://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/overview.php?v=CO2ts1990-2014. Accessed on 17 June 2016

[11] EEA (European Environment Agency) (2014) http://www.eea.europa.eu/data–and–maps/data/data–viewers/greenhouse–gases–viewer. Accessed on 17 June 2016

[12] Fan J, Guo XM, Marinova D, Wu YR, Zhao DT. Embedded carbon footprint of Chinese urban households: structure and changes. J Clean Prod, 2012, 33: 50-59

[13] Flessa H, Ruser R, Dörsch P, Kamp T, Jimenez MA, Munch JC, Beese F. Integrated evaluation of greenhouse gas emissions (CO₂, CH₄, N₂O) from two farming systems in southern Germany. Agric Ecosyst Environ, 2002, 91: 175-189

[14] Garg A, Bhattachary S, Shukla PR, Dadhwal VK. Regional and sectoral assessment of greenhouse gas emissions in India. Atmos Environ, 2001, 35: 2679-2695

[15] Glaeser EL, Kahn ME. The greenness of cities: carbon dioxide emissions and urban development. J Urban Econ, 2010, 67(3): 404-418

[16] Hao Y, Su MR, Zhang LX, Cai YP, Yang ZF. Integrated accounting of urban carbon cycle in Guangyuan, a mountainous city of China: the impacts of earthquake and reconstruction. J Clean Prod, 2015, 103: 231-240

[17] Hossain S. An econometric analysis for CO₂ emissions, energy consumption, economic growth, foreign trade and urbanization of Japan. Low Carbon Econ, 2012, 3: 92-105

[18] Houghton RA, Hackler JL. Emissions of carbon from forestry and land-use change in tropical Asia. Glob Change Biol, 1999, 5(4): 481-492

[19] Houghton JT, Meira Filho LG, Bruce JP, Lee H, Callander BA, Haites E, Harris N, Maskell K. Climate change 1994: radiative forcing of climate change and an evaluation of the IPCC IS92 emissions scenarios, 1995 Cambridge Cambridge University Press

[20] IEA (International Energy Agency) (2014) Energy, climate change and environment—2014 insights. http://www.iea.org/Textbase/npsum/EECC2014sum.pdf. Accessed on 17 June 2016

[21] IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (1996) Revised 1996 IPCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories. http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/gl/invs1.html. Accessed on 17 June 2016

[22] IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (2014) IPCC assessment reports. http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_and_data_reports.shtml. Accessed on 17 June 2016

[23] IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (2016) Frequently asked questions. http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/faq/faq.html. Accessed on 17 June 2016

[24] Liu LC, Wu G, Wang JN, Wei YM. China’s carbon emissions from urban and rural households during 1992–2007. J Clean Prod, 2011, 19(15): 1754-1762

[25] Liu Z, Guan DB, Wei W, Davis SJ, Ciais P, Bai J, Peng SS, Zhang Q, Hubacek K, Marland G, Andres RJ, Crawford-Brown D, Lin JT, Zhao HY, Hong CP, Boden TA, Feng KS, Peters GP, Xi FM, Liu JG, Li Y, Zhao Y, Zeng N, He KB. Reduced carbon emission estimates from fossil fuel combustion and cement production in China. Nature, 2015, 524: 335-338

[26] Lu WW, Chen C, Su MR, Chen B, Cai YP, Xing T. Urban energy consumption and related carbon emission estimation: a study at the sector scale. Front Earth Sci, 2013, 7(4): 480-486

[27] Ma K (2005) Study on enterprise’s organizational reengineering based on the theories of management entropy and dissipative structure. Dissertation for the Master Degree of Management, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin (in Chinese)

[28] Matsuo Y, Suzuki K, Nagatomi Y, Suehiro S, Komiyama R (2012) Estimating global CO₂ emission constraints and energy supply/demand structure in 2050 with MARKAL model. IEEJ 1–16. http://eneken.ieej.or.jp/data/4630.pdf. Accessed on 17 June 2016

[29] Molt S, Schumann P, Laege E, Fahl U, Voss A. Integrated strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Germany. Energy Convers Manag, 1996, 37(6–8): 735-740

[30] National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (2010) NASA Carbon Monitoring System Scoping Study Workshop Report. http://cce.nasa.gov/cce/cms/2010%20CMS_Scoping%20Study%20Workshop%20Report.pdf. Accessed on 17 June 2016

[31] Olonscheck M, Holsten A, Kropp JP. Heating and cooling energy demand and related emissions of the German residential building stock under climate change. Energy Policy, 2011, 39: 4795-4806

[32] Perch-Nielsen S, Sesartic A, Stucki M. The greenhouse gas intensity of the tourism sector: the case of Switzerland. Environ Sci Policy, 2010, 13(2): 131-140

[33] Powell A (2015) The Rainmaker in the Amazon, gauging the resilience of a rainforest. http://issuu.com/huce/docs/fallnewsletter-final-high. Accessed on 17 June 2016

[34] Ren SG, Yin HY, Chen XH. Using LMDI to analyze the decoupling of carbon dioxide emissions by China’s manufacturing industry. Environ Dev, 2014, 9: 61-75

[35] Salt JE, Moran A. International greenhouse gas inventory systems: a comparison between CORINAIR and IPCC methodologies in the EU. Glob Environ Change, 1997, 7(4): 317-336

[36] Schumacher K, Sands RD. Innovative energy technologies and climate policy in Germany. Energy Policy, 2006, 34: 3929-3941

[37] Shao L, Chen GQ, Chen ZM, Guo S, Han MY, Zhang B, Hayat T, Alsaedi A, Ahmad B. Systems accounting for energy consumption and carbon emission by building. Commun Nonlinear Sci Numer Simul, 2014, 19(6): 1859-1873

[38] Stern N (2006) Stern review: the economics of climate change. http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/sternreview_index.htm. Accessed on 17 June 2016

[39] Streets DG, Jiang KJ, Hu XL, Sinton JE, Zhang XQ, Xu DY, Jacobson MZ, Hansen JE. Recent reductions in China’s greenhouse gas emissions. Science, 2001, 294(30): 1835-1837

[40] Su MR, Liang C, Chen B, Chen SQ, Yang ZF. Low-carbon development patterns: observations of typical Chinese cities. Energies, 2012, 5(2): 291-304

[41] UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) (2014) http://unfccc.int/national_reports/annex_i_ghg_inventories/national_inventories_submissions/items/8108.php. Accessed on 17 June 2016

[42] WRI (World Resources Institute) (2014) Interactive: Carbon emissions past, present and future. http://www.wri.org/resources/data-visualizations/carbon-emissions-past-present-and-future-interactive. Accessed on 17 June 2016

[43] Xu FJ (2010) Research on the coordinated and control ability of network organization based on management entropy. Dissertation for the Master Degree of Management, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin (in Chinese)

[44] You F, Hu D, Zhang HT, Guo Z, Zhao YH, Wang BN, Yuan Y. Carbon emissions in the life cycle of urban building system in China—a case study of residential buildings. Ecol Complex, 2011, 8(2): 201-212

[45] Zhang L, Lei J, Zhou X, Zhang XL, Dong W, Yang Y. Changes in carbon dioxide emissions and LMDI-based impact factor decomposition: the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region as a case. J Arid Land, 2014, 6(2): 145-155

[46] Zhao RQ, Huang XJ, Zhong TY, Liu Y, Chuai XW. Carbon flow of urban system and its policy implications: the case of Nanjing. Renew Sustain Energy Rev, 2014, 33: 589-601