Energy Use and CO2 Emission Inventories in the Four Municipalities of China

Emission inventories are important tools for monitoring air quality and assisting the policies in urban areas. This paper estimates Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing's CO2 emissions of energy consumption and carbon intensity of the economic activities in 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2004-2007 based on the method recommended by IPCC. The results show that the coal combustion is the leading cause of total CO2 emission from energy consumption, occupied over 60% of total CO2 emission of fuels. But the share of CO2 emission from coal is descending gradually because of energy consumption restructuring. In addition, the four mega-cities’ carbon intensity of the economic activities, which is the low Carbon Economy index, is improving persistently. These results imply that China's CO2 emission in the future may not become as high as expected but improve with time.