EARTHTRENDS DATA TABLES
TECHNICAL NOTES: Carbon Dioxide Emissions by Sector 2005
For more information, please consult http://earthtrends.wri.org

VARIABLE DEFINITIONS

Total Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions refers to the mass of CO2 released from the burning (combustion) of fuel in a particular country or region. Fuels combusted include coal and coal products, oil, natural gas, industrial waste, and non-renewable municipal waste. CO2 emissions from land use change, biomass fuels, and cement manufacture are not included here.

Percent of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions by Sector refers to the percentage of total CO2 emissions attributed to each sector.

Public Electricity and Heat Production includes the sum of emissions from fuel combustion used for public electricity generation, public combined heat and power generation, and public heat plants. Public utilities are defined as those undertakings whose primary activity is to supply the public. Emissions from electricity and heat production for producer use (autoproduction) are also included in this variable except where they can be attributed to the industry, transport, or "other" sectors.

Other Energy Industries include the sum of emissions from fuel combustion used by energy industries. This includes fuel combusted in petroleum refineries for the manufacture of solid fuels, coal mining, oil and gas exploration, and other energy-producing industries.

Manufacturing Industries and Construction includes emissions from fuel combustion in all manufacturing industries and construction.

Internal Transportation includes emissions from combustion of fuels for road, rail, air, and other forms of transportation, and agricultural vehicles while they are on highways. The emissions include all sectors of the economy, but do not include international aviation or ship emissions.

Residential sources include emissions from fuel combustion in households.

Other Commercial, Public, and Agricultural Sectors includes the sum of emissions from fuel combustion used in agriculture, forestry, fishing, commercial, institutional, and other activities that are not accounted for elsewhere.

METHODOLOGY
Emissions are calculated from the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Energy Balance data using the methods and emissions factors from the Revised 1996 International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (Guidelines) available at http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/gl/invs1.htm. More information on IEA's Energy Balances can be found at http://data.iea.org/stats/codebook/wbaldoc.html.

The IPCC allows countries to use either the reference approach or the sectoral approach when reporting their CO2 emissions. The emissions shown here use the reference approach, which uses data on a country's total energy supply and captures refining, flaring, and other "fugitive emissions" that do not result directly from end-use fuel combustion. In contrast, the sectoral approach estimates emissions based on the combustion rather than the supply of fuels. 

The reference approach accounts for the carbon in all fuels supplied to the economy. Apparent consumption of fuels is calculated as production minus exports plus imports. Net stock changes are either added or subtracted. Emissions from international marine and aviation bunkers (fuels used for international transport) are subtracted from national totals, as these figures are accounted for separately. Imports and exports of both primary and secondary fuels are included in the calculations. 

A portion of all fuels is used as a feedstock for a non-energy use such as plastics manufacture or bitumen for road construction. Since the carbon in these fuels is not released into the atmosphere, this "stored carbon" is subtracted from the total emissions.

FREQUENCY OF UPDATE BY DATA PROVIDERS
The IEA updates carbon dioxide emissions data annually, often revising data from earlier years.

DATA RELIABILITY AND CAUTIONARY NOTES
The IEA has created CO2 emissions estimates from energy statistics that are based on well-established and institutionalized accounting methodologies and undergo thorough review and adjustments. In a few cases, however, these estimates differ significantly (>5%) from those reported by individual countries or by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This is because individual countries may use different energy figures than the IEA or treat bunker fuels differently. Other countries may calculate emissions with specific calorific values instead of the averages used by the IEA.

The data as received from the provider do not distinguish between missing data and zero values. WRI has distinguished between the two where possible, but some values represented as zero should probably be indicated as missing and vice versa.

SOURCES
International Energy Agency (IEA), 2004. CO2 Emissions from Fuel Combustion (2003 Edition). Electronic database available online at: http://data.iea.org/ieastore/default.asp. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).