Energy-related CO2 emission accounts and datasets for 40 emerging economies in 2010-2019

Abstract

Since 2000, CO2 emissions from emerging economies have outstripped those of developed economies. To limit global warming to under 1.5gg C by 2100, over 100 emerging economies have proposed net-zero carbon targets. Yet the supportive data are lacking-no inventory of CO2 emission outlines detailed sources by sector or distribution at the subnational level for these economies. Here, we redress the balance by establishing a dataset for an energy-related CO2 emission inventory that covers 47 sectors and eight energy types in 40 emerging economies (10.5281/zenodo.7309360, Cui et al., 2021). Their emissions, growing rapidly by 3.0g%gyr-1, reached 7.5gGt in 2019 and were sourced primarily in coal and oil (34.6g% and 28.1g%, respectively) and consumed by the power and transportation sectors. Meanwhile, among African countries in this group, biomass combustion was responsible for 34.7g%-96.2g% of emissions. Our dataset fills a data gap by providing a detailed, robust emission accounting baseline for emerging economies-an advance that will support emission reduction policymaking at global, national, and subnational levels.