Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Netherlands 1990-2003 - National Inventory Report 2005

Main conclusions

It was concluded that total CO₂-equivalent emissions of the six greenhouse gases together increased in 2003 by about 1 % relative to 1990 (1995 for fluorinated gases) (excluding LUCF). Emissions of CO₂ excluding LUCF increased from 1990 to 2003 by 12%, while in the same period CH₄ and N₂O emissions decreased by about 32% and 19%, respectively. For the fluorinated greenhouse gases, for which 1995 is the reference year, total emissions decreased by 60%. Emissions of HFCs and PFCs decreased by 75% and 25% in 2005, respectively, while SF6 emissions increased by 11% above the 1995 level. Special attention is paid to documenting the many recalculations performed to improve transparency and consistency over time and, thus, to better comply with IPCC and UNFCCC guidelines on methodologies and reporting.

Major changes from the previous National Inventory Report

Emissions

The Most sectors have been thoroughly recalculated, to bring the methods for key sources in line with IPCC Good Practice requirements to improve transparency and consistency over time:

• CO₂: the overall trend in CO₂ emissions (excluding LUCF) hardly changed compared to the previous NIR (+0.2% in 1990 and -0.1% in 2002). Please note that recalculating the LUCF category 5A Forests and adding LUCF emissions from soils, categories 5B to 5D resulted in a significant change in net emissions/removals from a net sink of about 1.5 Tg CO2 (partial estimate for 5A), to a net source of about 2.8 Tg CO2.
• CH₄: an increase of 3% in the trend of CH₄ emissions (from -32% to -29%).
• N₂O: a decrease of 9% in the trend of N₂O emissions from (-7% to -16%).
• F-gases: HFCs emission data only show marginal changes, the trend of PFCs emissions changed from -50% to -33% (increase of 17%) and SF6 increased from 58% to 65% (plus 7%).

The overall old 1990-2002 trend of all gases (excl. LUCF) hardly changed compared to the previous inventory report, from 1.1% to 0.8% (a small decrease of -0.3%).

Key sources

Newly identified key sources are:

• Energy: CO₂ from waste incineration, coke production, fugitive emissions from venting and flaring; and N₂O from mobile combustion: road vehicles;
• Industrial processes (i.e. non-combustion): CO₂ from iron and steel production (carbon inputs), ammonia production, other chemical manufacture; and N2O from caprolactam production and indirect N₂O from non-agricultural sources;
• Agriculture: CH₄ from enteric fermentation: ‘other’; and N₂O from manure management;
• LUCF: CO₂ from LUCF (now a source, not a sink);
• Waste: N₂O from wastewater handling.

Sections

Methodological changes are described in Section 1.4.

• Fuel use and emissions (CO₂, CH₄, N₂O) from fossil fuels (static combustion, processes and feedstocks) have been recalculated, based now on the National Energy Statistics, country-specific emission factors, and on specific circumstances (Sector 1A and 2)
• Agricultural emissions saw major methodological changes, in particular in CH₄ emission factors for enteric fermentation of cattle and of manure management systems (for all animal categories) and in the calculation of indirect agricultural N₂O soil emissions.
• LUCF sector CO₂ emissions/removals have now been estimated for most activities.

Key methodology report (English version)

Apart from Annex 2 and 3 of the report, the methodology and data sources used are described in more detail in the monitoring protocols for greenhouse gas emission sources/removals. These will be made available at the website mentioned above (Ruyssenaars, 2005).