Email a Friend
Printer Friendly
Slashdot It!
Submit to Reddit
Add to Facebook

Making sense of greenhouse gas accounting

November 30, 2009

Waste management is increasingly gaining the recognition that it deserves as a major contributor to mitigating climate change. But with at least four different methods of accounting for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions currently in play, it is vitally important to ensure that all stakeholders are counting emissions accurately and transparently. A study released this week in a special issue of the journal Waste Management & Research published by SAGE describes methods currently used to quantify GHG emissions in waste management, and proposes a new framework that enables stakeholders to use consistently and transparently core emission data, which can then be implemented in any accounting procedure.

GHG accounting has become a major focus within waste management, but due to complex and overlapping methodologies, confusion can and does arise. Emmanuel Gentil and Thomas Christensen from the Technical University of Denmark in Kongens Lyngby, Denmark along with Emmanuelle Aoustin of Veolia Environnement, Paris, France analysed and compared the four main types of GHG accounting in waste management.

The authors have analysed that the four main accounting approaches are based on common technical data from waste technologies and plants. "But the different accounting procedure scopes lead to many ways of quantifying emissions which is confusing to the waste management industry and wider stakeholders," says Gentil. The different GHG accounting methods include or exclude upstream and downstream processes, depending on their scope. "This naturally leads to different results, all likely to be fully justifiable," Gentil adds.

One accounting approach is provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidance documents and focus on the direct operating GHG emissions of landfill and mass burn incinerators. At the corporate level, GHG accounting is part of the annual reporting on environmental issues and social responsibility. While the IPCC accounting is organised around large industrial sectors, the corporate accounting mechanism is focusing on organisational boundaries, using traditional financial accounting procedures. A further approach is life-cycle assessment (LCA), as an environmental basis for assessing waste management systems and technologies, which aims at including upstream, operating and downstream environmental effects. Finally, the carbon trading methodology, and more specifically, the clean development mechanism (CDM) methodology, were introduced to support cost-effective reduction in GHG emissions for specific projects, such as landfill gas recovery. This approach aims at assessing the saved emissions due to the project compared to emissions that would have occurred without the implementation of the project.

Due to limited data availability and the different scopes of each accounting model, GHG emissions calculations can lead to different results, which taken out of their context, could lead to erroneous decisions. The authors reinforce the importance of transparency in GHG accounting when it comes to waste type, waste composition, time period considered, GHGs included, global warming potential (GWP) assigned to the GHGs, carbon cycle within waste management, choice of system boundaries, interactions with energy and other industrial systems, and the use of generic emissions factors.

In order to enhance transparency and consistency, Gentil and colleagues propose a format called the upstream-operating-downstream framework (UOD). This framework is to report basic or core technology-related data regarding GHG emissions. It shows a clear distinction between direct operating emissions from waste management technologies (e.g. landfill gas), indirect upstream (e.g. emissions from electricity use) and indirect downstream activities (e.g. recycling of scrap metals).

This framework may go some way to meeting one need identified in the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) Waste & Climate White Paper, due for publication in December 2009. This paper calls for a method that would allow researchers to capture the complete scope of waste activities to yield better recognition of the sector's important GHG reduction and avoidance potential from downstream GHG savings.

"Efforts to improve the quantification and reporting should be continued in order to reduce the uncertainty of emission estimation at the various levels and to harmonize the approaches using common core set of emission data," according to the ISWA white paper. For many stakeholders, this harmonization will be a welcome and timely step towards more comprehensive GHG accounting in order to support better and more sustainable decision making processes.

SAGE Publications UK

Related Greenhouse Gas Current Events and Greenhouse Gas News Articles

Greenhouse Gas Current Events and Greenhouse Gas News RSS

Best hope for saving Arctic sea ice is cutting soot emissions, says Stanford researcher
Soot from the burning of fossil fuels and solid biofuels contributes far more to global warming than has been thought, according to a new Stanford study.

Waste chip fat fuels hydrogen economy
Don't pour that dirty fat from the frier down the sink - it could be used to make the fuel of the future.

A future with or without trees
In some cases, it can be difficult for scientists to see the deforestation for the trees.

Unaccounted feedbacks from climate-induced ecosystem changes may increase future climate warming
The terrestrial biosphere regulates atmospheric composition, and hence climate. Projections of future climate changes already account for "carbon-climate feedbacks", which means that more CO2 is released from soils in a warming climate than is taken up by plants due to photosynthesis.

Researchers: EPA should recognize environmental impact of protecting foreign oil
U.S. military operations to protect oil imports coming from the Middle East are creating larger amounts of greenhouse gas emissions than once thought, new research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln shows.

Steam process could remove CO2 to regenerate amine capture materials
Because they can remove carbon dioxide from the flue gases of coal-burning facilities such as power plants, solid materials containing amines are being extensively studied as part of potential CO2 sequestration programs designed to reduce the impact of the greenhouse gas.

Biofuels sustainability: JRC designs methodology to calculate carbon stock changes
A key tool is the JRC's methodology to quantify changes to the amount of carbon in soils and biomass when land use changes as a result of biofuels production.

Heat waves could be commonplace in the US by 2039, Stanford study finds
Exceptionally long heat waves and other hot events could become commonplace in the United States in the next 30 years, according to a new study by Stanford University climate scientists.

Scrubbing CO2 from atmosphere could be a long-term commitment
With carbon dioxide in the atmosphere approaching alarming levels, even halting emissions altogether may not be enough to avert catastrophic climate change. Could scrubbing carbon dioxide from the air be a viable solution?

Man-made global warming started with ancient hunters
Even before the dawn of agriculture, people may have caused the planet to warm up, a new study suggests.

More Greenhouse Gas Current Events and Greenhouse Gas News Articles

	Greenhouse Gas Carbon Dioxide Mitigation: Science and Technology by Martin M. Halmann (Author), Meyer Steinberg (Author) Any mention of the "greenhouse effect" tends to ignite controversy. While the rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases-especially carbon dioxide- are certainly among the most pressing issues today, theoretical and perceived consequences have been subject to conjecture and misinformation.That raging debate has obscured an important fact: scientists and engineers are hard at work on methods to reduce CO2 emissions, and devise practical methods for their remediation.Greenhouse Gas Carbon Dioxide Mitigation: Science and Technologysheds light on the most recent advancements, documented by two of the world's leading researchers on CO2.Aware of the complexity and still-unknown factors behind climatic change, the authors consider the need to make CO2 mitigation viable for both...
	Greenhouse Gas Carbon Dioxide Mitigation: Science and Technology by CRC Press Any mention of the "greenhouse effect" tends to ignite controversy. While the rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases-especially carbon dioxide- are certainly among the most pressing issues today, theoretical and perceived consequences have been subject to conjecture and misinformation.That raging debate has obscured an important fact: scientists and engineers are hard at work on methods to reduce CO2 emissions, and devise practical methods for their remediation.Greenhouse Gas Carbon Dioxide Mitigation: Science and Technologysheds light on the most recent advancements, documented by two of the world's leading researchers on CO2.Aware of the complexity and still-unknown factors behind climatic change, the authors consider the need to make CO2 mitigation viable for both...
	Energy Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Ministry Econ Dvlp/% H Dang
	Reduce Your Greenhouse Gas by Sweetfilter Greenhouse gases destroy our Earths Ecosystem. High levels of CO2 gas (carbon dioxide) are a major cause of Global Warming. Major contributors of greenhouse gases are fully vented landfills and septic systems. Sweetfilter Zeocarbon septic vent pipe filters remove odors and greenhouse gases for up to 5 years. Then they are recycled as an ornamental gardening, nitrogen rich, fertilizer. It takes up to one year for one tree to fix the CO2 in the equivalent of 3 litres of gas. Vent pipe filters can do the same thing in one day, every day, for up to 5 years.
	Dramm MSO-Gas2 Gasoline Power Sprayer with 66 Feet Discharge Hose, Trigger-Style Gun & Suction Hose by Dramm
	Green Starring: Amy Jordan, Kazumasa Yokoyama, Marc Daratt Directed By: Brett William Mauser Also With: Brett William Mauser (Writer), Jake Jecmenek (Producer) In the year 2022, the Corporations and the Government are one. The Corporate States of America, in an attempt to control greenhouse gas emissions has instituted the "Green Lottery," a program in which citizens are selected at random and executed by assassins known as "Green Agents"."Isabella Montoya (Amy Jordan), a Green Agent, is in fact a sleeper agent for the Monarchy of California. Activated by a mysterious man, Kenji (Kazumasa Yokoyama), Isabella must infiltrate the Environmental Protection Corporation Headquarters and secure a file that could bring an end to the Green Lottery. Also on the path to find the truth about Global Warming and Green Legislation is Corporate Officer Dawson (Marc Daratt).In the process of learning the truth about the planet, Isabella will also learn the...
	Harnessing Farms and Forests in the Low-Carbon Economy: How to Create, Measure, and Verify Greenhouse Gas Offsets by Zach Willey (Editor), Bill Chameides (Editor) As the United States moves to a low-carbon economy in order to combat global warming, credits for reducing carbon dioxide emissions will increasingly become a commodity that is bought and sold on the open market. Farmers and other landowners can benefit from this new economy by conducting land management practices that help sequester carbon dioxide, creating credits they can sell to industry to “offset” industrial emissions of greenhouse gases. This guide is the first comprehensive technical publication providing direction to landowners for sequestering carbon and information for traders and others who will need to verify the sequestration. It will provide invaluable direction to farmers, foresters, land managers, consultants, brokers, investors, regulators, and others...
	Architecture 2030 Also With: PBS (Producer)
	Carbon Inventory Methods: Handbook for Greenhouse Gas Inventory, Carbon Mitigation and Roundwood Production Projects (Advances in Global Change Research) by Springer Carbon inventory requiring estimation of carbon dioxide emissions and removals in land-use categories for national greenhouse gas inventory and changes in stocks of carbon in projects aimed at climate change mitigation has become increasingly important in global efforts to address climate change. Hence, there is a need for a handbook that provides guidelines and methods required for carbon inventory. Carbon Inventory Methods Handbook provides detailed step-by-step information on sampling procedures, field and laboratory measurements, application of remote sensing and GIS techniques, modeling, and calculation procedures along with sources of data for carbon inventory. The unique feature of this handbook is that it provides practical guidance on carbon inventory...
	Cool Companies: How the Best Businesses Boost Profits and Productivity by Cutting Greenhouse-Gas Emissions by Joseph J. Romm (Author) Despite ongoing negotiations, consensus has not yet been reached on what action will be taken to combat global warming. A number of companies have looked beyond the current stalemate to see the prospect of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions not as a roadblock to growth and innovation but as a unique opportunity to increase profits and productivity. These "cool" companies understand the strategic importance of reducing heat-trapping emissions and have worked to cut their emissions by fifty percent or more. In the process, they have not only reduced their energy bill, but have increased their productivity, sometimes dramatically. In Cool Companies, energy expert Joseph Romm describes the experiences of these remarkable firms, as he presents more than fifty case studies in which bottom...