Analysis of Energy-Related Greenhouse Gas Emission in the Korea’s Building Sector: Use National Energy Statistics

Tae-Hyoung Kim,Young-Sun Jeong

doi:10.3390/en11040855

Tae-Hyoung Kim, Young-Sun Jeong

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/en11040855

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Abstract

Every country in the world is striving to deal with climate change such as global warming and environmental pollution caused by greenhouse gas emission as well as the depletion of fossil fuel including oil, coal, gas, etc. Countries have set long-term greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in this effort. Korea announced its goal to reduce the national greenhouse gas in medium- and long-term by 25.7% of the observed value of 2030 greenhouse gas emission (BAU) in 2011, and set to reduce the greenhouse gas by 18.2% in the building sector. In addition, according to IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), greenhouse gas emission in the building sector takes up about 19% of entire emission, a very high percentage along with 31% from the industry sector. This paper calculates the national and building sector greenhouse gas emission based on energy consumption statistics, in order for Korea to achieve Post-2020 greenhouse gas reduction target, predict building sector’s greenhouse gas emission, and implement and reduction policy. The greenhouse gas emission from buildings is about 124.9 million ton CO2equivalent as of 2015, taking up about 20% of greenhouse gas emission in Korea’s entire sectors, and decreased in 1998 from 105.0 million ton CO2eq in 1997. However, the greenhouse gas emission consistently increased from 119.3 million ton CO2eq in 2007 to 127.1 million ton CO2eq in 2010 and 127.3 million ton CO2eq in 2013.

Highlights

The “Paris Agreement” was adopted as a new climate agreement in the 21st Climatic ChangeConvention (COP 21), which was held in Paris, France recently (UN, 2015) [1]
According to the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), Korea submitted its plan to the UN to reduce greenhouse gas emission by 37% of the observed value (850.6 million ton CO2 equivalent (CO2 eq)) in all economic sectors
Every country in the world is striving to deal with climate change, such as global warming and environmental pollution caused by greenhouse gas emission as well as the depletion of fossil fuel including oil, coal, gas, etc

Summary

Introduction

The “Paris Agreement” was adopted as a new climate agreement in the 21st Climatic ChangeConvention (COP 21), which was held in Paris, France recently (UN, 2015) [1]. Agreement aims to maintain the average increase of global temperature below 2 ◦ C, compared to pre-industrialization. This is very important because all nations must contribute to greenhouse gas reduction to prevent climate change with emphasis on leading roles by developed countries. Korea announced that it aims to reduce the national greenhouse gas in medium- and long-term by 25.7% (219 million ton CO2 eq) of the observed value of 2030 greenhouse gas emission (BAU) in 2011, and set to reduce the greenhouse gas by 18.2% (35.8 million ton CO2 eq) in the building sector [2]. Since it is difficult to reduce greenhouse gas in the industry sector, which has the highest greenhouse gas emission, due to conflicts of interest, it is very important to make efforts to reduce greenhouse gas in the building sector

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