A Revised CO2 Emissions Database for GTAP

Since GTAP 5 Data Base, a special satellite account that estimates CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion has been developed (Lee, 2002). A corresponding approach to the estimation of emissions has remained unchanged since then and relies on the Tier 1 method of the 1996 IPCC Guidelines (IPCC/OECD/IEA, 1997). However, a number of concerns regarding discrepancies between GTAP CO2 emissions data and other international data sources, such as EDGAR and IEA, have been raised. In this paper, we compare GTAP CO2 emissions data with other international data sources and quantify the revealed discrepancies. To address the identified differences, we develop and implement a revised emissions accounting framework based on the Tier 1 method of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines. Our revised approach includes estimation of emission factors at a more granular commodity level than implemented in the standard GTAP 10A Data Base. Two additional refinements include an updated accounting of emissions from blast furnaces and other recovered gases, as well as a more transparent treatment of CO2 emissions from flaring. We implement an updated emissions accounting framework for the case of GTAP 11 energy database and show that it helps to substantially reduce discrepancies between GTAP and other international data sources both at the global and country levels.