The consolidated European synthesis of CH4 and N2O emissions for the European Union and United Kingdom: 1990–2017

Reliable quantification of the sources and sinks of greenhouse gases, together with trends and uncertainties, is essential to monitoring the progress in mitigating anthropogenic emissions under the Paris Agreement. This study provides a consolidated synthesis of CH4 and N2O emissions with consistently derived state-of-the-art bottom-up (BU) and top-down (TD) data sources for the European Union and UK (EU27 + UK). We integrate recent emission inventory data, ecosystem process-based model results and inverse modeling estimates over the period 1990–2017. BU and TD products are compared with European national greenhouse gas inventories (NGHGIs) reported to the UN climate convention UNFCCC secretariat in 2019. For uncertainties, we used for NGHGIs the standard deviation obtained by varying parameters of inventory calculations, reported by the member states (MSs) following the recommendations of the IPCC Guidelines. For atmospheric inversion models (TD) or other inventory datasets (BU), we defined uncertainties from the spread between different model estimates or model-specific uncertainties when reported. In comparing NGHGIs with other approaches, a key source of bias is the activities included, e.g., anthropogenic versus anthropogenic plus natural fluxes. In inversions, the separation between anthropogenic and natural emissions is sensitive to the geospatial prior distribution of emissions.

PETRESCU Roxana;  QIU Chunjing;  CIAIS P.;  THOMPSON Rona;  PEYLIN Philippe;  MCGRATH Matthew;  SOLAZZO Efisio;  JANSSENS-MAENHOUT Greet;  TUBIELLO Francesco;  BERGAMASCHI Peter;  BRUNNER Dominik;  PETERS Glen P.;  HÖGLUND-ISAKSSON Lena;  REGNIER Pierre;  LAUERWALD Ronny;  BASTVIKEN D.;  TSURUTA Aki;  WINIWARTER Wilfried;  PATRA P. K.;  KUHNERT M;  OREGGIONI Gabriel;  CRIPPA Monica;  SAUNOIS Marielle;  PERUGINI Lucia;  MARKKANEN Tiina;  AALTO Tuula;  GROOT ZWAAFTINK Christine;  TIAN Hanqin;  YAO Yuanzhi;  WILSON Christopher;  CONCHEDDA Giulia;  GÜNTHER Dirk;  LEIP Adrian;  SMITH Pete;  HAUSSAIRE Jean-Matthieu;  LEPPÄNEN Antti;  MANNING Alistair J.;  MCNORTON Joe;  BROCKMANN Patrick;  DOLMAN Han; 

2022-12-01

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH

JRC131474

1866-3508 (online),   

https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/13/2307/2021/,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC131474,   

10.5194/essd-13-2307-2021 (online),