Emissions of fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases), which are used as replacements for ozone-depleting substances, have risen sharply since 1995. The rapid increase in F-gas emissions coupled with their global warming potential (GWP) has led to increased worldwide attention to monitoring emission levels and subsequently regulating the use of F-gases. These restrictions apply in particular to applications for which alternative technologies are available that are more economically efficient and have minor or no impact on the Earth’s climate system. This paper brings new information about changes in composition of consumed F-gases in the Czech Republic. Since no F-gases are produced in the country, data about F-gas consumption are obtained from three resources which give information about import and export. The paper also describes implementation of newly used F-gases, which are used as replacements for specific F-gases, into emission calculation models. Emissions are estimated according to the methodology developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Although consumption of F-gases with high GWP has already started decreasing, it will have no effect on F-gas emissions for several years.
In the context of greenhouse gas emissions, CO2 emissions from fuels are not arising only from combustion of the fuels, but also from non-energy use of fuels. In order to keep the inventory transparent, comparable, accurate, consistent, and complete, it is necessary to carefully assess such emissions in order to neither not omit nor double count them. The paper presents the methodological guidance of non-energy use of fuels given by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2006 Guidelines. Further, approaches of the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, and Hungary, three neighboring countries, for reporting CO2 emissions from non-energy use of fuels are presented and discussed.
2 January 2014 in Greenhouse Gas Measurement and Management
Natural gas combustion comprises an important part of CO2 emissions in the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic used for estimation of CO2 emissions from natural gas combustion until 2012 submission the less accurate basic methodology which uses default emission factor (EF), which does not take into account the national conditions. In order to improve this situation a research of a national-specific approach to EF determination was performed. This paper represents results of this research which was aimed at development of EF not only for the last reported year but for the whole time series since 1990. The activity data and net calorific values are available in sufficient quality for the whole time series; however the data about molar composition of natural gas and other physical characteristics necessary for the development of country-specific EFs were available only for some period; the most valuable data were available since 2007. Development of the appropriate values of EFs for all reported years starting 1990 till present was based on the findings of relevant correlations of EF and net calorific value.
Combustion of lignite and coal comprises the most important part of CO2 emissions in the Czech Republic (CR). The IPCC methodology on national greenhouse gas inventories provides default values of emission factors for the basic tier (the simplest level of methodological approach), including those for lignite and coal, which do not represent the specific national conditions. Therefore, this methodology indicates that more accurate country-specific emission factors based on national data should be used for the significant categories of sources, called key categories. This paper presents the results of recent research that was concerned with updating country-specific emission factors, which would be able to accurately describe CO2 emissions from combustion of coal and lignite in the Czech Republic for the whole time period from 1990 to the present year (2016). Development of these factors was based on the evaluation of relevant correlation dependence of emission factor on net calorific value. In addition, the research was supplemented by assessment of relevant country-specific oxidation factors for lignite and coal.