Refined NEAT Results for Korea on Non-energy Use CO2 Emissions

초록

Carbon accounting is a key issue in the discussions on global warming/ CO2 mitigation. This paper applies both the IPCC Approach and a refined NEAT model, a bottom-up approach, to estimate carbon release (actual CO2 emissions) and carbon storage (potential CO2 emissions) originating from non-energy use in Korea. The estimates differ widely. The IPCC Approach estimates actual emissions of 15.5 Mt CO2 and potential emissions of 45.2 Mt CO2 for Korea, while the NEAT model shows actual emissions of 9.2 Mt CO2 for both approaches and potential emissions ranging from 29 Mt CO2 (consumption based) to 40.9 Mt CO2 (production based) for 1996. The IPCC Approach results in much higher actual and potential CO2 emissions than the NEAT model. This is because only bulk products and bulk intermediates are taken into account in the NEAT model, on the one side, and because the IPCC Approach does not consider actual emissions caused by traded short life materials and by intermediate imports and exports that are used for the production of short life materials, on the other side. Moreover, the results for carbon storage show that there is a large difference between the estimates calculated using the NEAT model. The carbon storage calculated according to the production based approach was much higher than the one calculated according to the consumption based approach, because Korea was a large net exporter of petrochemicals. This highlights the importance of international trade with intermediates and short life materials in the carbon accounting.