Emissions

Component is implemented in:

IMAGE land management model (version IMAGE land management 3.2) Components: Emissions Forest management Land cover and land use Land-use allocation Livestock systems Nutrients and TIMER model (version TIMER 3.2) Aggregated component: Energy supply and demand Components: Emissions Energy conversion Energy demand Energy supply

Projects/Applications

EMF30 LIMITS (2014) Roads from Rio+20 (2012) project Shared Socioeconomic Pathways - SSP (2014) project

Models/Databases

CEDS database EDGAR database GAINS database

Key publications

Braspenning Radu et al., 2016 Harmsen et al., 2019c Lucas et al., 2007 Rao et al., 2016 Rao et al., 2017 Van Vuuren et al., 2006 Van Vuuren et al., 2011b

Flowchart Emissions. See also the Input/Output Table on the introduction page. Anthropogenic sources, for natural sources see Table 5.2.2. More detail on inputs and outputs, and how they link to other IMAGE components is presented at the end of this section (Emission table).

Key policy issues

• How will emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants develop in scenarios with and without policy interventions, such as climate policy and air pollution control?
• What synergies between climate policy and air pollution control can be identified?

Introduction

Emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants are major contributors to environmental impacts, such as climate change, acidification, eutrophication, urban air pollution and water pollution. These emissions stem from anthropogenic and natural sources. Anthropogenic sources include energy production and consumption, industrial processes, agriculture and land-use change, while natural sources include wetlands, oceans and unmanaged land. Better understanding the drivers of these emissions and the impact of abatement measures is needed in developing policy interventions to reduce long-term environmental impacts.

Input/Output Table

Input Emissions component

IMAGE model drivers and variables	Description	Source
GDP per capita	Gross Domestic Product per capita, measured as the market value of all goods and services produced in a region in a year, and is used in the IMAGE framework as a generic indicator of economic activity.	Drivers
Energy and industry activity level	Activity levels in the energy and industrial sector, per process and energy carrier, for example, the combustion of petrol for transport or the production of crude oil.	Energy conversion, Energy demand, Energy supply
Emission abatement	Reduction in emission factors as a function of Climate policy.	Climate policy
Land cover, land use - grid	Multi-dimensional map describing all aspects of land cover and land use per grid cell, such as type of natural vegetation, crop and grass fraction, crop management, fertiliser and manure input, livestock density.	Land cover and land use
Animal stocks	Number of animals per category: non-dairy cattle; dairy cattle; pigs; sheep and goats; poultry.	Livestock systems
Feed crop requirement	Total amount of feed required for the production of animal products. Grass and fodder species are consumed by grazing animals only (dairy and non-dairy cattle, sheep and goats), while pigs and poultry are fed feed crops and other feedstuffs.	Livestock systems

External datasets	Description	Source
Emission factors	Exogenous emission factors per sector, activity and gas, mostly based on the EDGAR database.	EDGAR database
Relationship income and emission factor	Relationship between GDP and emission factors.

Output Emissions component

IMAGE model variables	Description	Use
CO2 emission from energy and industry	CO2 emission from energy and industry.	Atmospheric composition and climate Climate policy
Nitrogen deposition - grid	Deposition of nitrogen.	Nutrients Terrestrial biodiversity
BC, OC and NOx emissions	Emissions of BC, OC and NOx per year.	Atmospheric composition and climate Climate policy Human development
SO2 emissions	SO2 emissions, per source (e.g. fossil fuel burning, deforestation).	Atmospheric composition and climate Climate policy Human development
CO and NMVOC emissions	Emissions from CO and NMVOC.	Atmospheric composition and climate Climate policy
Non-CO2 GHG emissions (CH4, N2O and Halocarbons)	Non-CO2 GHG emissions (CH4, N2O, Halocarbons).	Atmospheric composition and climate Climate policy