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  1. Home
  2. Essential Climate Variables
  3. Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Emissions

 

Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Global anthropogenic emissions of Greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O and F-gases) continue to be emitted at an annual rate that is not yet significantly decreasing. The global warming potential of each of the greenhouse gases and their long residence time in the atmosphere are causing increased surface temperature and climate change. The scientific community illustrated with inverse models and data assimilation how consistent the reported inventories and the atmospheric observations are, which is taken up also in few national inventory reports (e.g. UK, Switzerland, Australia).

  Domain: Terrestrial
  Subdomain: Human Use of Natural Resources
  Scientific Area: Biosphere
  ECV Steward: Greet Maenhout
  Products:  Anthropogenic CO2 Emissions from Fossil Fuel Use, Industry, Agriculture, Waste and Products Use; Anthropogenic CH4 Emissions from Fossil Fuel, Waste, Agriculture, Industrial Processes and Fuel Use; Anthropogenic N2O Emissions from Fossil Fuel Use, Industry, Agriculture, Waste and Products Use, Indirect from N-Related Emissions/Depositions; Anthropogenic F-Gas Emissions from Industrial Processes and Product Use; Total Estimated Fluxes by Coupled Data Assimilation/ Models with Observed Atmospheric Composition – National; Total Estimated Fluxes by Coupled Data Assimilation/ Models with Observed Atmospheric Composition – Continental; Anthropogenic CO2 Emissions/Removals by Land Categories; High-Resolution Footprint Around Point Sources

 


Global CO2 Emissions

Figure: Gridded total CO2 emissions of EDGARv4.3.2 from anthropogenic sources excluding the land use, land-use change and forestry sectors for 2012 of Janssens-Maenhout et al. (2019).

 

 


ECV Products and Requirements

These products and requirements reflect the Implementation Plan 2022 (GCOS-244).

The requirements are found in the complete 2022 ECVs Requirements document as well: ECV Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

Products   Anthropogenic CO2 Emissions from Fossil Fuel Use, Industry, Agriculture, Waste and Products Use Anthropogenic CH4 Emissions from Fossil Fuel, Waste, Agriculture, Industrial Processes and Fuel Use

Anthropogenic N2O Emissions from Fossil Fuel Use, Industry, Agriculture, Waste and Products Use, Indirect from N-Related Emissions/Depo-sitions

Anthropogenic F-Gas Emissions from Industrial Processes and Product Use
  (*) Unit Values Values Values Values
Horizontal Resolution G Country-level By country and sector By country and sector By country and sector By country and sector
B        
T By country and sector By country and sector By country and sector By country and sector
Vertical Resolution G   - - - -
B - - - -
T - - - -
Temporal Resolution G y 1 1 1 1
B        
T 1 1 1 1
Timeliness G y Within 1.25 years within 1.25 years within 1.25 years within 1.25 years
B        
T Within 1.25 years within 1.25 years within 1.25 years within 1.25 years
Required Measurement Uncertainty (2-sigma) G % Globally: 5%
Nationally: 10%
20% 40% 10%
B        
T Globally: 10%
Nationally: 30%
40% 80% 50%
Stability G          
B        
T        

 

Products     Total Estimated Fluxes by Coupled Data Assimilation/ Models with Observed Atmospheric Composition – National Total Estimated Fluxes by Coupled Data Assimilation/ Models with Observed Atmospheric Composition – Continental     Anthropogenic CO2 Emissions/Removals by Land Categories     High-Resolution Footprint Around Point Sources
  (*) Unit Values Values   Unit Values   Unit Values
Horizontal Resolution G km 10 1000   Country-level By country/region   km 1
B            
T 100 10000   By country/region   2
Vertical Resolution G   - -     -     -
B - -   -   -
T - -   -   -
Temporal Resolution G y 1 1   y 1   h 4
B            
T 1 1   1   144 (6 days)
Timeliness G y within 1.25 years within 1.25 years   y within 1.25 years   weeks 1
B            
T within 1.25 years within 1.25 years   within 1.25 years   4
Required Measurement Uncertainty (2-sigma) G % 10 10   % or Gg 15% or 300Gg,
whichever is largest
  ppm 1
B            
T 30 25   20% or 400Gg,
whichever is largest
  5
Stability G                  
B            
T            
 

(*) Goal (G): an ideal requirement above which further improvements are not necessary. Breakthrough (B): an intermediate level between threshold and goal which, if achieved, would result in a significant improvement for the targeted application. The breakthrough value may also indicate the level at which specified uses within climate monitoring become possible. It may be appropriate to have different breakthrough values for different uses. Threshold (T): the minimum requirement to be met to ensure that data are useful.

 


Data Sources

This list provides sources for openly accessible data sets with worldwide coverage for which metadata is available. It is curated by the respective GCOS ECV Steward(s). The list does not claim to be complete. Anyone with a suitable dataset who wishes it to be added to this list should contact the GCOS Secretariat.

 

  • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change inventory data

http://di.unfccc.int/time_series

  • Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (Edgar)

http://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/s/

  • Open-Data Inventory for Anthropogenic Carbon dioxide (ODIAC)

http://db.cger.nies.go.jp/dataset/ODIAC/

  • Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center

https://cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/

  • The Global Carbon Project (GCP)

https://www.globalcarbonproject.org/

  • Open-Data Inventory for Anthropogenic Carbon dioxide (ODIAC)

http://db.cger.nies.go.jp/dataset/ODIAC/

  • Community Emissions Data System (CEDS)

http://www.globalchange.umd.edu/ceds/

  • FLUXNET

https://fluxnet.ornl.gov/fluxnetdb  

EU Copernicus

 

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