CO₂ emissions and carbon storage resulting from the non-energy use of fossil fuels in the Netherlands, NEAT results for 1993-1999

Abstract

Estimating CO2 emissions resulting from the non-energy use of fossil fuels is not straightforward, because part of the carbon is released quickly as CO2 whereas another part is first embodied in organic chemicals. To contribute to a more accurate non-energy use CO2 emission accounting, the Non-energy use Emission Accounting Tables (NEAT) model has been developed, which is in this paper applied to the Netherlands for the time period 1993-1999. For this period, we estimate the total non-energy use in CO2 equivalents in the Netherlands to vary between 26.1 and 30.2 Mt CO2. Of this total, 4.6-6.6 Mt CO2 is emitted in industrial processes and during product use. The remainder is stored, resulting in an overall storage fraction of approximately 80%. Given the uncertainties involved, we cannot distinguish clear trends for the years of study. We show that the definition of non-energy use has a significant effect on the calculated storage fractions. The carbon storage according to the Dutch national greenhouse gas (GHG) emission inventory is 5-9 Mt CO2 lower compared to the NEAT result. As a result, total fossil CO2 emissions (including those from fossil fuel combustion) according to the national inventory are higher by the same amount, which is 3-5% of the total Dutch emissions. The difference is among other things caused by difficulties associated with the direct use of non-energy use figures from the Dutch energy statistics for CO2 emission accounting. We recommend improving the Dutch GHG emission inventory making use of the results of this study.