CO 2 emissions and carbon storage resulting from the non-energy use of fossil fuels in the Netherlands, NEAT results for 1993–1999

Abstract

Estimating CO 2 emissions resulting from the non-energy use of fossil fuels is not straightforward, because part of the carbon is released quickly as CO 2 whereas another part is first embodied in organic chemicals. To contribute to a more accurate non-energy use CO 2 emission accounting, the Non-energy use Emission Accounting Tables (NEAT) model has been developed, which is in this paper applied to the Netherlands for the time period 1993–1999. For this period, we estimate the total non-energy use in CO 2 equivalents in the Netherlands to vary between 26.1 and 30.2 Mt CO 2. Of this total, 4.6–6.6 Mt CO 2 is emitted in industrial processes and during product use. The remainder is stored, resulting in an overall storage fraction of approximately 80%. Given the uncertainties involved, we cannot distinguish clear trends for the years of study. We show that the definition of non-energy use has a significant effect on the calculated storage fractions. The carbon storage according to the Dutch national greenhouse gas (GHG) emission inventory is 5–9 Mt CO 2 lower compared to the NEAT result. As a result, total fossil CO 2 emissions (including those from fossil fuel combustion) according to the national inventory are higher by the same amount, which is 3–5% of the total Dutch emissions. The difference is among other things caused by difficulties associated with the direct use of non-energy use figures from the Dutch energy statistics for CO 2 emission accounting. We recommend improving the Dutch GHG emission inventory making use of the results of this study.