The majority of the total carbon emissions in China are energy induced. A clear understanding of energy-induced carbon emissions is therefore necessary for local communities to develop a better carbon emissions management system. We develop an integrated inventory method for energy-induced carbon emissions accounting in local Chinese communities. The method combines scope and sectoral analyses on the basis of local statistical features. As an outcome four core findings are presented: (1) From 2000 to 2009, the energy-induced carbon emissions of Chongming rapidly increased from 1.75 to 4.90 million tons, with the annual growth rate of 12.12%. (2) Emissions from manufacturing, construction, and household sectors accounted for 84.44%; manufacturing is the biggest emitting sector. (3) Carbon emissions from imported electricity reached a historic high of 22.51% in 2009, indicating the necessity of taking the imported carbon emissions into consideration. (4) In 2008, the per capita carbon emissions of Chongming were lower than that of the United States and Shanghai, but higher than that of the global average. Three strategic approaches are proposed: to optimize industrial structure and improve efficiency, reinforce carbon management for the household sector, and enhance carbon statistics.
In recent years, climate change has become a global issue. In its fourth report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely (likelihood range: >90%) due to the observed increase in anthropogenic GHG concentrations (IPCC, 2007). Furthermore, energy-induced carbon emissions have been the main source of anthropogenic GHG emissions because of the increase in fossil fuel consumption after the industrial revolution. As a result, reducing GHG emissions from energy generation without inhibiting economic development has become a global challenge. To achieve this target, the success of GHG emission management is necessary, while it lies in making sufficient information available to policy makers. Although a relatively new field in China, GHG emissions accounting has evolved rapidly over the last 10 years as pioneer practitioners worldwide standardised the methods and protocols for calculating carbon emissions. The Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) is a leader in developing accounting methodologies and setting standards for the carbon emission inventories of local communities. The simple pragmatic approach outlined in the ‘International Local Government GHG Emissions Analysis Protocol (IEAP)’ (ICLEI, 2009) by the ICLEI has been popularised in recent years, with more than 1000 local governments worldwide participating in the ICLEI initiatives. Many international local governments have published their GHG inventories (The City and County of Denver, 2007, City of Vancouver, 2009 and The City of New York, 2010). The GHG emissions accounting method of ICLEI improves carbon accounting implementation. In China, however, the sectoral division of activities (by which carbon emissions can be traced) differs from the subdivisions proposed by ICLEI (residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation initiatives.). Thus, the ICLEI approaches cannot be directly applied to the specific circumstances of local Chinese governments.
In the present paper, we proposed the integrated inventory method by integrating the sectoral division employed in China into the scope analysis, which can help the local communities of China establish their own inventories and effectively develop carbon emission reduction strategies for decision making. Furthermore, our findings can serve as a database and reference for empirical research on local carbon emissions management in response to climate change.
In addition, as the representative GHG of Shanghai, CO2 accounts for up to 97.2% of total greenhouse gas emissions from energy consumption (Wang et al., 1996). For this reason, the current work focuses only on CO2 emissions, expressed in unit of ton directly (ton).
