Carbon flows and carbon use in the German anthroposphere: An inventory

Abstract

Today, global climate change is one of the most urgent environmental problems. The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO 2) has to be stabilised by significant reductions of CO 2 emissions in the next decades to keep the expected temperature rise within tolerable borders. Efforts exceeding the implemented measures to reduce CO 2 emissions in Germany are desirable. An important pre-condition for such measures is a scientific-based inventory of the sources, sinks, and use of carbon. In this paper, we present CarboMoG, i.e. Carbon Flow Model of Germany. CarboMoG is a carbon flow model covering carbon flows, carbon sources and sinks in Germany and the German anthroposphere, showing concurrent energy and non-energy use of carbon sources. The model consists of seven modules in German anthroposphere following the German classification of economic sectors. Carbon flows to and from atmosphere and lithosphere as well as imports and exports were included into the model. The model comprises roughly 220 material flows determined based on material flow procedures for the base year 2000. Main sources of carbon are fossil energy carriers from lithosphere and uptake of CO 2 by crops (52% resp. 48% of all carbon sources). The model calculations show that import of energy carriers dominates total carbon import to Germany (82%). Total non-energy use of carbon in Germany is significantly higher than energy use (386 Mt C and 230 Mt C, resp.). Carbon throughput of Industry is greatest (about 224 Mt C input), followed by Energy (about 129 Mt C input). Agriculture and Forestry & Industry show the highest figure for non-energy use of carbon, energy use of carbon is largest in the Energy sector. Emissions of CO 2 to atmosphere account for 94% of all carbon flows to sinks in Germany. Carbon accumulates in German anthroposphere 5 Mt C in 2000.