Modelling the impacts of challenging 2030 DPRK’s GHGs mitigation targets on DPRK’s energy system

Yongjae An,Haijun Cao,Cholu Kwon,T Coenye,H Huang

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/202014502079

Abstract

The DPRK ratified the Paris Agreement on 1st August 2016 and fully committed to achieving goals for reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) in its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) which was submitted on 3rd October 2016. The DPRK’s INDC includes a mitigation and an adaptation component. In the mitigation component, as unconditional contribution, DPRK intends to achieve with domestic resources the reduction of GHG emissions by 8% by 2030 as compared to Business as Usual (BAU) scenario. Moreover, the conditional contributions are measures that could be implemented if additional international financial support, technology transfer and capacity building are received. The national contribution could be increased up to 40% with international support. This paper focuses on these mitigation targets for DPRK by an interesting case study of GHG emissions for a 12 year period from 1990 to 2002. We proposed the DPRK’s GHGs mitigation model by analyzing the Irish TIMES (The Integrated MARKAL–EFOM System) energy systems modelling tool, and proved the technical availability of CO2-8 scenario delivering an 8% emissions reduction target by 2030. We then compared the scenario results in terms of changes in energy technology, the role of energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Highlights

DPRK has recently made great progress in the implementation of the forest restoration campaign, has achieved a great success in establishing the sufficient material and technical basis for national environment protection, afforestation and enclosing-with-park throughout the country
The DPRK’s Business as Usual (BAU) scenario is compared with two alternative medium term(to 2030) energy pathways, one that delivers an 8% reduction in energy-related CO2 emissions (CO2-8) and another that delivers an 40.25% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (CO2-40 i.e., 40.25% reduction in CO2 emission assuming international financial support under the Paris Agreement)
This paper reports results on ambitious mitigation target to 2030 for the DPRK energy system

Summary

Introduction

DPRK has recently made great progress in the implementation of the forest restoration campaign, has achieved a great success in establishing the sufficient material and technical basis for national environment protection, afforestation and enclosing-with-park throughout the country. Large or medium and small hydropower stations, including the Paektusan Hero Youth Power Station, have been built, which has made great progress in improving power generation and consumption efficiency and expanding the use of renewable energy. All these efforts have made some progress in protecting environment. The DPRK has established a legal policy framework to deal with climate change, supplemented the Environmental Protection Law with the contents related to climate change, and promulgated a new Environment Impact Assessment Law. In particular, in order to promote the efforts of the international community to address climate change, DPR Korea ratified the UNFCCC (an acronym for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) on 5 December 1994, the Kyoto Protocol on 27 April 2005 and the Paris Agreement on 1 August 2016[1]

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