Updates of a Global CO2 Emission Inventory (1960–2019) with Highly Resolved Source Information

A CO2 emission inventory with highly-resolved spatial granular and source categories provides valuable information for scientific research on climate change. Here we present an updated CO2 emission inventory, the Global Emission Modeling System for CO2 (GEMS-CO2) covering the period from 1960 to 2019, based on a previous inventory (PKU-CO2) and incorporating highly-resolved spatial and sectoral information. This inventory was developed using a bottom-up approach and incorporates subnational activity data, emission factors, and combustion efficiency. It includes 225 countries/regions, seven sectors (energy, industry, transport, residential, commercial, agriculture, and industrial process), five fuel types (coal, oil, gas, waste, and non-renewable wood fuel) and 16 industrial processes, making up a total of 92 source categories. Notably, we account for carbon emissions from parts of wood fuel due to non-renewable wood harvesting. We further differentiate the residential and commercial sectors into 38 fuel sub-types and the transport sector into 20 sub-types, mainly focusing on road and navigation vehicles. Emissions are presented in annual and monthly resolutions (mainly covering monthly residential energy consumption), with a spatial resolution of 0.1º × 0.1º. Our inventory aligns with some global inventories but differs slightly from others. Results show that from 1960 to 2019, human activity contributed to a cumulative emission of 1352.0 (1265.3–1443.6 as inter-quartile range) Gt CO2 and annual emissions increase threefold from 9.1 Gt CO2 yr-1 in 1960 to 36.7 Gt CO2 yr-1 in 2019. This increment is mainly driven by bituminous and natural gas in energy sector, passenger gasoline, motor vehicle diesel, domestic aviation, pig iron and cement production, and bituminous and natural gas in industry sector. In residential sector, the combustion of natural gas and LPG are key increasing drivers while the coal use is decreased, indicating a shift from coal to oil and gas under the increasing energy needs. Our high-resolution map presents high emission densities in China, USA, India, Japan, and some Europe countries for year 2019. Developing Asian countries, especially China, India, and Malaysia, show highly-varied emission densities for a recent decade. Overall, our inventory provides detailed datasets, particularly in the residential, commercial, and transport sectors, for comprehensive research on climate change mitigation and adaptation.