A synthesis of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel combustion

[摘要] This synthesis discusses the emissions of carbon dioxidefrom fossil-fuel combustion and cement production. While much is known aboutthese emissions, there is still much that is unknown about the detailssurrounding these emissions. This synthesis explores our knowledge of theseemissions in terms of why there is concern about them; how they arecalculated; the major global efforts on inventorying them; their global, regional, and national totals atdifferent spatial and temporal scales; how they are distributed on globalgrids (i.e., maps); how they are transported in models; and theuncertainties associated with these different aspects of the emissions. Themagnitude of emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels has been almostcontinuously increasing with time since fossil fuels were first used byhumans. Despite events in some nations specifically designed to reduceemissions, or which have had emissions reduction as a byproduct of otherevents, global total emissions continue their general increase with time.Global total fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions are known to within 10 %uncertainty (95 % confidence interval). Uncertainty on individual nationaltotal fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions range from a few percent to morethan 50 %. This manuscript concludes that carbon dioxide emissions fromfossil-fuel combustion continue to increase with time and that while much isknown about the overall characteristics of these emissions, much is still tobe learned about the detailed characteristics of these emissions.

[学科分类] 地球化学与岩石