Embedded energy and total greenhouse gas emissions in final consumptions within Thailand

Abstract

In order to quantify the total Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from different commodities, the contribution of emissions in all subprocess chains has to be considered. In embedded energy analysis, the higher order production processes are usually truncated due to a lack of data. To fill the truncated subprocesses up to infinite process chains, energy intensities and GHG emission factors of various final consumptions in the economy evaluated by the Input–Output Analysis (IOA) must be applied. The direct GHG emissions in final consumptions in Thailand are evaluated by imitating the approach in the energy sector of the revised 1996 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines for national GHG inventories. The indirect energy and indirect emissions are evaluated by using the 1998 Input–Output (I–O) table. Results are presented of emissions in the main process, indirect processes, and on each subprocess chain order. The trend of energy intensity and emission factors of all final consumptions for 1995, 1998, 2001 and 2006 are also presented. Results show that the highest energy intensive sector is the electricity sector where fossil fuel is primarily used, but the highest total GHG emitter is the cement industry where the major sources of the emissions are industrial processes and the combustion of fossil fuels. Implication of the emission factors on electricity generating technologies shows that various cleaner electricity generating technologies, including renewable energy technology, could help in global GHG mitigation.