South Korean Updates: National GHG Emissions Increased by 9.8% in 2010 (28 Feb 2013)

National GHG Emissions Increased by 9.8% in 2010

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2013.02.28

Greenhouse Gas Inventory & Research Center of Korea (GIR) announced that national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions increased by 9.8% (60 million ton) to 669 million ton (converted into CO2 amount) in 2010 compared to the previous year.

〔Total National Emissions by Year〕

	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Total Emission (million ton)	575.4	590.3	604.1	609.1	668.8
Y-O-Y Increase Rate (%)	1.2	2.6	2.3	0.8	9.8
GDP Growth Rate (%)	5.2	5.1	2.3	0.3	6.3

The main causes for increased emissions in 2010 are reportedly growing emissions from thermal power generation and manufacturing such as steelmaking.

The GHG emissions from thermal power increased by 23 million ton (42% of total emissions) due to rising demand on heating and cooling power because of the heat wave and cold wave.

As steel making facilities and car production have expanded, emissions from steel making industry went up by 19 million ton (32% of total emissions).

According to a regression analysis on data for 21 years (from 1990 to 2010), heating and cooling power accounted for 40.3% of major cause for increased emissions, GDP growth 45.6% and others 14.1% in 2010.  Except for rising demand on heating and cooling due to the heat and cold wave, the national emissions rose by around 5.9%.

Looking into each sector’s emissions in 2010, the emissions from energy (consumption) sector increased by 10.6%, industrial process went up by 9.1%, agriculture rose by 0.4% and waste fell by 1.5% compared to the previous year.

Also, energy sector accounted for 85.3%, industrial process 9.4%, agriculture 3.2% and waste 2.1% out of total emissions.

GIR said that it is imperative to take more ambitious policies to meet the reduction target of reducing GHG emissions by 30% from BAU level by 2020 as Korea pledges to the international community.

It also added that it is required to strengthen management of power demand through various policy measures and paradigm shift in order to cut national GHG emissions from 2015 based on the target.

Source: 

http://eng.me.go.kr/board.do?method=view&docSeq=11287&bbsCode=new_news&currentPage=1&searchType=&searchText=&categoryCode=04