Global Carbon Budget 2021

Accurate assessment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and their redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere in a changing climate is critical to better understand the global carbon cycle, support the development of climate policies, and project future climate change. Here we describe and synthesize data sets and methodology to quantify the five major components of the global carbon budget and their uncertainties. Fossil CO2 emissions (EFOS) are based on energy statistics and cement production data, while emissions from land-use change (ELUC), mainly deforestation, are based on land-use and land-use change data and bookkeeping models. Atmospheric CO2 concentration is measured directly, and its growth rate (GATM) is computed from the annual changes in concentration. The ocean CO2 sink (SOCEAN) is estimated with global ocean biogeochemistry models and observation-based data-products. The terrestrial CO2 sink (SLAND) is estimated with dynamic global vegetation models. The resulting carbon budget imbalance (BIM), the difference between the estimated total emissions and the estimated changes in the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere, is a measure of imperfect data and understanding of the contemporary carbon cycle. For the first time, an approach is shown to reconcile the difference in our ELUC estimate with the one from national greenhouse gases inventories, supporting the assessment of collective countries’ climate progress.

FRIEDLINGSTEIN P;  JONES Matthew;  O'SULLIVAN Michael;  ANDREW Robbie;  BAKKER Dorothee C. E.;  HAUCK Judith;  LE QUÉRÉ Corinne;  PETERS Glen P.;  PETERS Wouter;  PONGRATZ Julia;  SITCH Stephen;  CANADELL Josep G.;  CIAIS Philippe;  JACKSON Robert B.;  ALIN Simone R.;  ANTHONI Peter;  BATES Nicholas;  BECKER Meike;  BELLOUIN Nicolas;  BOPP Laurent;  CHAU Thi Tuyet Trang;  CHEVALLIER F.;  CHINI Louise P.;  CRONIN Margot;  CURRIE Kim I.;  DECHARME Bertrand;  DJEUTCHOUANG Laique M.;  DOU Xinyu;  EVANS Wiley;  FEELY Richard A.;  FENG Liang;  GASSER Thomas;  GILFILLAN Dennis;  GKRITZALIS Thanos;  GRASSI Giacomo;  GREGOR Luke;  GRUBER N.;  GÜRSES Ö;  HARRIS Ian;  HOUGHTON Richard A.;  HURTT G.;  IIDA Yosuke;  ILYINA Tatiana;  LUIJKX Ingrid T.;  JAIN Atul;  JONES Steve D.;  KATO Etsushi;  KENNEDY Daniel;  KLEIN GOLDEWIJK Kees;  KNAUER Jurgen;  KORSBAKKEN Jan Ivar;  KÖRTZINGER Arne;  LANDSCHÜTZER Peter;  LAUVSET Siv K.;  LEFÈVRE Nathalie;  LIENERT Sebastian;  LIU Junjie;  MARLAND G.;  MCGUIRE Patrick C.;  MELTON Joe R.;  MUNRO David R.;  NABEL Julia E.M.S;  NAKAOKA Shin-Ichiro;  NIWA Y;  ONO Tsuneo;  PIERROT Denis;  POULTER Benjamin;  REHDER Gregor;  RESPLANDY Laure;  ROBERTSON Eddy;  RÖDENBECK Christian;  ROSAN Thais M.;  SCHWINGER Jörg;  SCHWINGSHACKL Clemens;  SÉFÉRIAN Roland;  SUTTON Adrienne J.;  SWEENEY Colm;  TANHUA Toste;  TANS P.;  TIAN Hanqin;  TILBROOK Bronte;  TUBIELLO Francesco;  VAN DER WERF Guido R.;  VUICHARD Nicolas;  WADA Chisato;  WANNINKHOF Rik;  WATSON Andrew;  WILLIS David;  WILTSHIRE Andrew J.;  YUAN Wenping;  YUE C.;  YUE Xu;  ZAEHLE Sonke;  ZENG Jiye; 

2022-10-24

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH

JRC127584

1866-3508 (online),   

https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/14/1917/2022/,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC127584,   

10.5194/essd-14-1917-2022 (online),