RIVM report xxxxxx xxx

RIVM report 773301 001 / NRP report 410200 051 page 85 of 142
&RQFOXVLRQVDQGUHFRPPHQGDWLRQV
The Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) system is able to generate the
annual global emissions of the greenhouse gases from anthropogenic both at regional/country and at
1x1 degree grid levels. The finest spatial resolution of the data is 1 o x1 o (with an altitude resolution of
1 km for aircraft emissions), as agreed upon in WKH*OREDO(PLVVLRQV,QYHQWRU\$FWLYLW\ (GEIA) of the
,QWHUQDWLRQDO*OREDO$WPRVSKHULF&KHPLVWU\3URJUDPPH(IGAC). EDGAR 2.0 has proven to meet
the most pressing requirements of modellers as well as the needs for policy applications; EDGAR 3.0
updates this data to more recent years, includes new sources and provides historical time series for
the direct greenhouse gas emissions.
0HWKRGRORJ\
The common approach for all countries in source definition, selection of activity data, emission
factors and grid maps for 1x1 degree grid distribution of country total emissions of all compounds
ensures a global consistency across countries, sources, compounds that cannot be achieved otherwise
by concatenation of official national emission inventories, e.g. of ECE/CORINAIR, NAPAP,
UNFCCC. Though the latter approach appears to provide the most accurate global emissions as the
national inventories were developed by local experts using country-specific datasets, there is also a
fair change of bias in emissions of certain countries, when the national inventories have not been
intercompared.
$SSOLFDWLRQVRI('*$5
The number of downloads from the FTP site increased from 50 per quarter in 1997 to nearly 100 in
mid-1999. Of the 700 quarterly registered users in the logged 2½ year period, most reside in OECD
countries. Most of these are modellers, but EDGAR data are also extensively used for policy
applications for which emissions data on country level were calculated with the EDGAR information
system.
9DOLGDWLRQ
An extensive validation of EDGAR 2.0 data for 1990 was performed: for greenhouse gases with
National Communications submitted under the 81 )UDPHZRUN &RQYHQWLRQ RQ &OLPDWH &KDQJH
(UNFCCC) and for other gases with data from CORINAIR, GEIA and others. In addition, inventories
in National Communications were checked for the use of different emission factors for 1990 and
1995 in order to select sources and gases for which specific emission factors for 1995 in EDGAR
V3.0 need to be determined. In addition, for CO 2 ,NO x and SO 2 a comparison was made with the
present GEIA inventories, both on grid and per country. Conclusions were drawn regarding the
apparent uncertainty in international statistics, on emission factors, missing sources and on apparent
strong emission trends in specific regions/sources.
('*$5GDWD
The largest differences with EDGAR 2.0 emissions are in the following sources:
ú wastewater treatment has been added, which is a substantial source of CH 4 ;
ú indirect emissions of N 2 O from agriculture have been added;
ú agricultural waste burning emissions have been decreased substantially, in particular for CO;
ú temperate forest fires show considerable emissions, though highly variable between years;
ú NMVOC from domestic waste burning, in 2.0 called uncontrolled waste burning have
decreased substantially;
ú fossil fuel fires have been added, increasing fuel-related emissions in China considerably;