Non-energy Use and CO2 Emissions in Korea: Overview of the Data on Non-energy Use

초록

Carbon accounting is a key issue in the discussions on global warming/ CO2 mitigation. This paper applies both the IPCC Approach and the NEAT model, a bottom-up approach, to estimate carbon storage (potential CO2 emissions) and carbon release (actual CO2 emissions) originating from non-energy use in Korea. The estimates differ widely. The IPCC Approach estimates potential emissions of 40.3 Mt CO2 for Korea, while the NEAT model shows potential emissions ranging from 24.3 Mt CO2 (consumption based) to 36.1 Mt CO2 (production based) for 1996. The IPCC Approach results in much higher potential CO2 emissions, because a part of the petrochemical feedstock is consumed as fuels which is not properly considered in non-energy use statistics, on one side, and because only bulk products and bulk intermediates are taken into account in the NEAT model, on the other side. Moreover, the results 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.