ANTHROPOGENIC COMPONENT OF GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS FROM THE TERRITORY OF THE KALININGRAD REGION

Abstract

The increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is influenced to a greater extent by a degree of development of industry, a growth of electrification, deforestation, and the burning of fuel for the production of heating and electricity. The contribution of emissions of each of these factors and the ratio of greenhouse gases in them should be taken into account when developing the measures to prevent climate change. According to calculations of emissions from the territory of the Kaliningrad region the burning of fuel and energy resources are supposed to be playing the main role in the greenhouse gas emission from the territory of the Kaliningrad region. In statistical reference books this activity is described as the “activities for the production and distribution of electricity, gas and water.” The usage of this fuel in the energy sector is increasing: from 1742.4 thousand tons of standard fuel in 1991 up to 2193.9 in 2016. Such little increase in total emissions is due to the general technology improvement in the country. Carbon dioxide makes up the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions from the territory of the Kaliningrad region. The percentage of the gases in the total volume is as follows: CO2 - 96.7%, CH4 - 1%, N2 O - 2.3%. Its emissions for the period from 2013 to 2016 varied from 3,757.4 in 2014 to 4,091.7 in 2015 thousand tons of standard fuel, reaching its maximum value in 2015. The estimate presented in this paper is a lower estimate, since it does not take into account emissions from industrial processes, leaks, land use, waste, etc., as well as from some categories of emission sources due to the lack of data on the use of fuel in the Kaliningrad region. Among other things, the calculations of emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide from the use of fuel by vehicles in 2016, which have shown to be 1.86 times less than from burning of fossil fuels for the same year (2032.87 Gg CO2 eq. and 3914.79 Gg CO2 eq., respectively) and to account for 34.5% of the total emissions, have been made. Moreover, according to the methodology for calculating emissions the factor of carbon dioxide absorption by the region’s forests has been taken into account. The amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by forests has shown to be only 11.9% of the emissions of this gas during the combustion of boiler and furnace fuel.