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Toward Accurate, Policy-Relevant Fossil Fuel CO2 Emission Landscapes
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    Anthropogenic Impacts on the Atmosphere

    Toward Accurate, Policy-Relevant Fossil Fuel CO2 Emission Landscapes
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    • Kevin Robert Gurney*
      Kevin Robert Gurney
      School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 85287, United States
      School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85281, United States
      *Email: [email protected]
    • Yang Song
      Yang Song
      School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 85287, United States
      More by Yang Song
    • Jianming Liang
      Jianming Liang
      School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85281, United States
    • Geoffrey Roest
      Geoffrey Roest
      School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 85287, United States
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    Environmental Science & Technology

    Cite this: Environ. Sci. Technol. 2020, 54, 16, 9896–9907
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    https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c01175
    Published July 28, 2020
    Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society

    Abstract

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    The bottom-up (BU) approach has been used to develop spatiotemporally resolved, sectorally disaggregated fossil fuel CO2 (FFCO2) emission data products. These efforts are critical constraints to atmospheric assessment of anthropogenic fluxes in addition to offering the climate change policymaking community usable information to guide mitigation. In the United States, there are two high-resolution FFCO2 emission data products, Vulcan and the Anthropogenic Carbon Emissions System (ACES). As a step toward developing improved, accurate, and detailed FFCO2 emission landscapes, we perform a comparison of the two data products. We find that while agreeing on total FFCO2 emissions at the aggregate scale (relative difference = 1.7%), larger differences occur at smaller spatial scales and in individual sectors. Differences in the smaller-emitting sectors are likely errors in ACES input data or emission factors. ACES advances the approach for estimating emissions in the gas and oil sector, while Vulcan shows better geocoordinate correction in the electricity production sector. Differences in the subcounty residential and commercial building sectors are driven by different spatial proxies and suggest a task for future investigation. The gridcell absolute median relative difference, a measure of the average gridcell-scale relative difference, indicates a 53.5% difference. The recommendation for improved BU granular FFCO2 emission estimation includes review, assessment, and archive of point source geolocations, CO emission input data, CO and CO2 emission factors, and uncertainty approaches including those due to spatial errors. Finally, intensives where local utility data are publicly available could test the spatial proxies used in estimating residential and commercial building emissions. These steps toward best practices will lead to more accurate, granular emissions, enabling optimal emission mitigation policy choices.

    Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society

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    • 10 emitting gridcells in the Vulcan electricity production sector and Vulcan airport sector for which the ACES electricity production gridcells and ACES airport gridcells had zero emissions; top 10 emitting gridcells in the ACES electricity production sector and ACES airport sector for which the Vulcan electricity production gridcells and Vulcan airport gridcells had zero emissions; comparison of Vulcan and ACES airport FFCO2 emissions, commercial nonpoint FFCO2 emissions, CMV FFCO2 emissions, industrial nonpoint FFCO2 emissions, nonroad FFCO2 emissions, onroad FFCO2 emissions, electricity production FFCO2 emissions, railroad FFCO2 emissions, residential FFCO2 emissions; statistical measures of the differences between the aggregated (5 km × 5 km, 10 km × 10 km, and 25 km × 25 km) 2011 Vulcan and ACES FFCO2 emission data products; and comparison of ACES and Vulcan total FFCO2 emissions at 5 km × 5 km, 10 km × 10 km, and 25 km × 25 km resolutions (PDF)

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    Environmental Science & Technology

    Cite this: Environ. Sci. Technol. 2020, 54, 16, 9896–9907
    Click to copy citationCitation copied!
    https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c01175
    Published July 28, 2020
    Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society

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