Why do we need a GHG Emissions Inventory?
The National Greenhouse Gases (GHG) Emissions Inventory is the key tool for monitoring and reporting on emissions from sources and removals by sinks. The inventory reporting format is based on international reporting methods agreed to by the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and using the procedures of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The GHG Inventory covers emissions and removals estimates for a time series starting from 1990 from the following sectors: Energy (including Transport), Industrial Processes, Solvents and Other Products Use, Agriculture, Waste and the Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector.
In addition to sectors, the GHG Inventory is also a mechanism to monitor emissions by different Greenhouse Gases. The GHG for which emissions and removals are estimated in national inventories include: Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous oxide (N2O), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).
The latest GHG Inventory for Malta, including the Common Reporting Format (CRF) tables and a National Inventory Report (NIR) were produced in 2009 and cover a time series from 1990 to 2007. Activity data used for the preparation of this inventory has been mainly obtained from the National Statistics Office, from government entities, from other public bodies such as regulatory authorities and from private establishments.
The general trends from this report indicate that:
- in general, per capita emissions have risen from around 5.5 tonnes per head in 1990 to 7.3 tonnes per head in 2007. Malta contributes around 0.1 % to the EU-27 GHG emissions.
- By far the largest contributor to national emissions is the energy sector with a share in 2007 of 88.7 % of gross national emissions. The second highest contributing category is waste, with a share of 6.6 % of overall emissions. The industrial processes, agriculture and the solvent and other product use sectors have together an overall share of less than 5.0 %.
- From 1990 to 2007, the GHG emissions in Malta have increased by 49 % and amount to 3034 Gg in 2007, where the most significant contributor to this increase being the similar overall increase in CO2 emissions. The CO2 removal portion through the LULUCF sector account to an average annual figure of -58 Gg CO2 sequestered by the vegetation.
- In 2007, emissions of CH4 represent a share of 8.5 % of overall national emissions. CH4 emissions mainly originate from the waste sector and to a lesser extent from the agricultural sector. Emissions of N2O amount to an average of 1 % of the overall national GHGs emissions. Over the inventory time series, N2O emissions have remained fairly constant. The major source of N2O emissions is the waste sector and follows by the contribution from the energy sector.
- The fluorinated gases (HFCs and SF6) have an almost zero percent contribution to the total national GHG emissions in 1990. This contribution increases in an exponential way to 2.3 % in 2007, where the main source of emissions is the consumption of refrigerants in refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment.
What is the Global Warming Potential of Greenhouse Gases?
The different Greenhouse Gases (GHG) have different capacities to cause global warming, depending on their radiative properties, their molecular weight and their lifetime in the atmosphere.
A simple working method provides for the calculation of the relative contribution of a unit emission of each gas, relative to the effect of a unit emission of CO2 integrated over a fixed time period. A 100-year time horizon has been chosen by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in view of the relatively long time scale for addressing climate change. The calculation method established the Global Warming Potential (GWP) for each individual GHG. The GWP is defined as the warming influence over a set time period of any GHG, relative to that of CO2.
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