Research Notes from NERI no. 211. Denmark´s National Inventory Report 2005 - submitted under the United Nations Frameword Convention on Climate Change. 1990-2003. Emission Inventories. Illerup, J.B. et al. 2005. 416 pp.
Executive summary
ES.1. Background information on greenhouse gas inventories and climate change
Annual report
This report is Denmark’s National Inventory Report (NIR) due by 15 April 2005 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The report contains information on Denmark’s inventories for all years from 1990 to 2003. The structure of the report is in accordance with the UNFCCC Guidelines on reporting and review and the report includes detailed information on the inventories for all years from the base year to the year of the current annual inventory submission, in order to ensure the transparency of the inventory.
The annual emission inventory for Denmark from 1990 to 2003 is reported in the Common Reporting Format (CRF). The CRF-spreadsheets contain data on emissions, activity data and implied emission factors for each year. Emission trends are given for each greenhouse gas and for the total greenhouse gas emissions in CO2- equivalents.
The issues addressed in this report are: Trends in greenhouse gas emissions, description of each IPCC category, uncertainty estimates, explanations on recalculations, planned improvements and procedure for quality assurance and control.
The NIR and the CRF tables are available to the public on the National Environmental Research Institute’s homepage:
http://www.dmu.dk/1_Viden/2_Miljoe-tilstand/3_luft/4_adaei/default_en.asp
Responsible institute
The National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) under the Danish Ministry of Environment is responsible for the annual preparation and submission to the UNFCCC (and the EU) of the National Inventory Report and the GHG inventories in the Common Reporting Format in accordance with the UNFCCC Guidelines. NERI is also the designated entity with the overall resposibility for the national inventory under the Kyoto Protocol. The work concerning the annual greenhouse emission inventory is carried out in co-operation with other Danish ministries, research institutes, organisations and companies.
Greenhouse gases
The greenhouse gases reported under the Climate Convention are:
The global warming potential values of various gases have been defined as the warming effect of a given weight of a specific substance relative to CO2. The purpose of this is to be able to compare and integrate the effects of individual substances on the global climate. The typical lifetimes are 100, 10 and 300 years for CO2, CH4 and N2O, respectively, and the time perspective clearly plays a decisive role. The lifetime chosen is typically 100 years. Then the effect of the various greenhouse gases can be converted into the equivalent quantity of CO2, i.e. the quantity of CO2 giving the same effect in absorbing solar radiation. According to the IPCC, the most recent global warming potential values for a 100-year time horizon are:
• CO2: 1
• Methane (CH4): 21
• Nitrous oxide (N2O): 310
Based on weight and a 100-year period, methane is thus 21 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than CO2, and N2O is 310 times more powerful. Some of the other greenhouse gases (hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride) have considerably higher global warming potential values. For example, sulphur hexafluoride has a global warming potential of 23,900. The global warming potential values used in this reporting are those prescribed by UNFCCC.
ES.2. Summary of national emission and removal related trends
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The greenhouse gas emissions are estimated according to the IPCC guidelines and are aggregated in seven main sectors. The greenhouse gases include CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs and SF6. Figure ES.1 shows the estimated total greenhouse gas emissions in CO2 equivalents from 1990 to 2003. The emissions are not corrected for electricity trade or temperature variations. CO2 is the most important greenhouse gas followed by N2O and CH4 in relative importance. The contribution to national totals from HFCs, PFCs and SF6 is about 1%. Stationary combustion plants, transport and agriculture are the largest sources. The net CO2 removals by forestry and soil (Land Use Change and Forestry (LUCF)) are about 2% of the total emissions in CO2 equivalents in 2003. The national total greenhouse gas emissions in CO2 equivalents without LUCF have increased by 6,8% from 1990 to 2003 and by 4,8% with LUCF.
Figure ES.1 Greenhouse gas emissions in CO2 equivalents distributed on main sectors for 2003. Left: Time-series for 1990 to 2003.
ES.3. Overview of source and sink category emission estimates and trends
Energy
The largest source to the emission of CO2 is the energy sector, which includes combustion of fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas. Public power and district heating plants contribute with more than half of the emissions. About 22% come from the transport sector. The CO2 emission increased by about 9% from 2002 to 2003. The reason for this increase was mainly due to increasing export of electricity. Also lower outdoor temperature in 2003 compared with 2002 contributed to the increase. A relatively large fluctuation in the emission time-series 1990 to 2003 is due to cross-country electricity trade. Thus high emissions in 1991, 1996 and 2003 reflect a large electricity export and the low emission in 1990 is due to a large import of electricity. The increasing emission of CH4 is due to increasing use of gas engines in the decentralised cogeneration plants. The CO2 emission from the transport sector has increased by 22% since 1990 mainly due to increasing road traffic.
Agriculture
The agricultural sector contributes with 14% of the total greenhouse gas emission in CO2- equivalents and is one of the most important sectors regarding the emissions of N2O and CH4. In 2003 the contributions to the total emissions of N2O and CH4 were 78% and 62 % respectively. The main reason for a drop of the N2O emission of about 31% from 1990 to 2003 is because of demands according to legislation to an improved utilisation of nitrogen in manure. This results in less nitrogen excreted per unit produced and a considerably reduction in the use of fertilisers. From 1990 the emissions of CH4 from enteric fermentation have decreased because of decreasing numbers of cattle. However, the emission from manure management has increased due to change in stable systems towards an increase in slurry based stable systems. Altogether the emission of CH4 for the agriculture sector has decreased by 4% from 1990 to 2003.
Industrial processes
The emissions from industrial processes – that is emissions from processes other than fuel combustion - amount to 3% of the total national emissions in CO2- equivalents. The main sources are cement production, nitric acid production, refrigeration, foam blowing and calcination of limestone. The CO2 emission from cement production – which is the largest source contributing with 2,6% of the national totals – increased with 55% from 1990 to 2003. The second largest source is N2O from the production of nitric acid. The N2O emission from this production decreased with 14% from 1990 to 2003.
The emissions of HFCs, PFCs and SF6 have since 1995 and until 2003 increased by 129% mainly due to increasing emissions of HFCs. The use of HFCs, and especially HFC-134a have increased several fold so HFCs has become a very dominating F-gas contributing to the F-gas total from 66% in 1995 to 93% in 2003. HFC-134a is mainly used as a refrigerant. However, the use of HFC-134a is stagnant or falling. This is due to Danish law, which in 2007 forbids new HFC based refrigerant stationary systems. Counter to this trend is the increasing use of air conditioning systems, among these mobile systems.
Waste
Waste disposal is the third largest source to CH4 emissions. The emission has decreased by 14% from 1990 to 2003 where the contribution was 20% of the total CH4 emission. The decrease is due to increasing use of waste for power and heat production. Since all incinerated waste is used for power and heat production, the emissions are included in the 1A1a IPCC category. For the first time the CH4 emissions from waste-water handling are included in the inventory. The emission from this sector amounts to about 4% of the total CH4 emissions.
ES.4. Other information
ES.4.1 Quality assurance and quality control
A draft plan for implementing Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) in greenhouse gas emission inventories is included in the report. The plan is in accordance with the guidelines provided by the UNFCCC (Good Practice Guidance and Uncertainty Management in National Greenhouse Gas Inventories and Guidelines for National Systems). The ISO 9000 standards are also used as an important input for the plan. The plan is under development and adjustments may still take place.
In the preparation of Denmark's annual emission inventory several quality control (QC) procedures are carried out already as described in chapters 3-8. The QA/QC plan will improve these activities in the future.
The main objective is to implement a plan that comprises a frame for documenting and reporting emissions in a way that emphasises transparency, consistency, comparability, completeness and accuracy. To fulfil these high criteria a data structure is proposed that describe the pathway from the collection of raw data to data compilation and modelling and final reporting
As part of the Quality Assurance (QA) activities emission inventory sector reports have been prepared and send to national experts not involved in the inventory development for review. So fare the reviews have been completed for the stationary combustion plants sector and the transport sector. In order to verify the Danish emission inventories a project where emission levels and emission factors are compared with other countries have been started.
ES.4.2. Completeness
The Danish greenhouse gas emission inventory due 15 April 2005 includes all sources identified by the Revised IPPC Guidelines except the following:
ES.4.3. Recalculations and improvements
Considerable improvements of the inventories and the reporting have been made in response to the latest UNFCCC review process and as a result of an on-going working process.
The main improvements are:
For the National Total CO2 Equivalent Emissions without Land-Use Change and Forestry the general impact of the improvements and recalculations performed is small and the changes for the whole time-series are between -0.50 and +0.86. Therefore the implications of the recalculations on the level and on the trend 1990-2003 of this national total are small.
For the National Total CO2 Equivalent Emissions with Land-Use Change and Forestry the general impact of the recalculations is rather small, although the impact is bigger than without LULUCF due to recalculations in the LULUCF Sector. The differences are positive for all years. The differences vary between 2.75% and 5.41%. These differences refer to recalculated estimates with major changes in the forestry sector for those years.
Full report in pdf format (4.343 Kb).
