Authors:
Andrew R. Jacobson, University of Colorado, Boulder, and NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
John B. Miller, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
Kevin Robert Gurney, Northern Arizona University

Fossil Fuel Emissions Estimates for North America

  1. U.S. Department of Energy Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) Version 2017 (Boden et al., 2017) for 1751 to 2014. Emissions included in this database are those due to fossil fuel consumption (e.g., oil, coal, and natural gas), gas flaring, and cement production. Emissions are listed by country and fuel type; bunker fuels are available separately but not included in the country totals.

  2. U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA 2017) for 1980 to 2015. CO2 emissions from the consumption of energy, including emissions resulting from the consumption of petroleum, natural gas, and coal, as well as from natural gas flaring. Emissions are computed from consumption statistics for each fuel type by applying emissions factors. Data include nonfuel use of petroleum such as asphalt for street paving and exclude emissions from geothermal power generation, cement production and other industrial processes, or municipal solid waste combustion.

  3. Fossil Fuel Data Assimilation System (FFDAS) Version 2 (Rayner et al., 2010; Asefi-Najafabady et al., 2014) for 1997 to 2012. Emissions other than power production (which use a pointwise bottom-up dataset) are estimated using data assimilation to constrain a modified Kaya identity model. The two observed fields are space-based nightlights and population density. Country totals are then created by aggregating gridded emissions using Lloyd et al. (2016, 2017) gridded country boundaries based on the Database of Global Administrative Areas, called GADM. Version 2 of FFDAS produces estimates for electricity-production, industrial, residential, commercial, and transportation (other than domestic aviation and domestic waterborne) sectors and includes a posterior uncertainty as produced by the assimilation system and prior uncertainty estimates. These map closely to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 1A fuel consumption category (excepting 1A3a, civil aviation, and 1A3d, navigation).

  4. Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) Version 4.3.2 (Janssens-Maenhout et al., 2017a) for 1970 to 2012. Total used of all emissions listed in “CO2_excl_short-cycle_org_C” from version 4.3.2, which includes IPCC categories (see Table E.1, this page, for a partial list).

  5. Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research Fast Track (EDGAR FT) EDGAR Version 4.3.2 FT2016 (Janssens-Maenhout et al., 2017b; Olivier et al., 2017) for 1970 to 2016. Sectoral coverage is described as “Transport, Other Industrial Combustion, Buildings, Noncombustion, Power Industry.” For unknown reasons, EDGAR FT and the standard EDGAR emissions do not agree during their common years (i.e., 2012 and before).

Table E.1. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Source/Sink Codes and Categories

Code Category
1A1a Public electricity and heat production
1A1bc Other energy industries
1A2 Manufacturing industries and construction
1A3a Domestic aviation
1A3b Road transportation
1A3c Rail transportation
1A3d Inland navigation
1A3e Other transportation
1A4 Residential and other sectors
1B1 Fugitive emissions from solid fuels
1B2 Fugitive emissions from oil and natural gas
2A1 Cement production
2A2 Lime production
2A3 Limestone and dolomite use
2A4 Soda ash production and use
2A7 Production of other minerals
2B Production of chemicals
2C Production of metals
2G Nonenergy use of lubricants/waxes (carbon dioxide)
3A Solvent and other product use: paint
3B Solvent and other product use: degrease
3C Solvent and other product use: chemicals
3D Solvent and other product use: other
4D4 Other direct soil emissions
6C Waste incineration
7A Fossil fuel fires

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