Greenhouse gas emissions in the Netherlands 1990–2015 : National Inventory Report 2017

Abstract

Total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the Netherlands in 2015 increased by approximately 4%, compared with 2014 emissions. This increase was mainly the result of the increased electricity production in coal fired plants compared to 2014. Furthermore fuel combustion in all sectors was increased as the winter of 2015 was less mild as the one in 2014. In 2015, total GHG emissions (including indirect CO2 emissions and excluding emissions from Land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF)) in the Netherlands amounted to 195.2 Tg CO2 eq. This is approximately 12.5% below the emissions in the base year2 (223.1 Tg CO2 eq). CO2 emission have increased above the level in the base year 1990 in 2015 (+ 1.5%). This increase was offset by the reduction in the emissions since 1990 of methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases (CH4, N2O and F-gases). This report documents the Netherlands’ 2017 annual submission of its greenhouse gas emissions inventory in accordance with the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (IPCC, 2006) provided by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol and the European Union’s Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Mechanism. The report includes explanations of observed trends in emissions; an assessment of the sources with the highest contribution to the national emissions (key sources) and the uncertainty in their emissions; an itemization of methods, data sources and emission factors (EFs) applied; and a description of the quality assurance system and the verification activities performed on the data