The geography of global urban greenhouse gas emissions: an exploratory analysis

The purpose of this paper is to describe global urban greenhouse gas emissions by region and sector, examine the distribution of emissions through the urban-to-rural gradient, and identify covariates of emission levels for our baseline year, 2000. We use multiple existing spatial databases to identi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Climatic change 2013-12, Vol.121 (4), p.621-634
Main Authors: Marcotullio, Peter John, Sarzynski, Andrea, Albrecht, Jochen, Schulz, Niels, Garcia, Jake
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmospheric Sciences
Carbon dioxide
Climate change
Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts
Climatology. Bioclimatology. Climate change
Developing countries
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Emissions
Energy industry
Environmental policy
Estimates
Exact sciences and technology
External geophysics
Geography
Global warming
Greenhouse effect
Greenhouse gases
LDCs
Meteorology
Nitrous oxide
Population number
Urban areas
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Summary:The purpose of this paper is to describe global urban greenhouse gas emissions by region and sector, examine the distribution of emissions through the urban-to-rural gradient, and identify covariates of emission levels for our baseline year, 2000. We use multiple existing spatial databases to identify urban extent, greenhouse gas emissions (CO 2 , N 2 O, CH 4 and SF 6 ) and covariates of emissions in a “top-down” analysis. The results indicate that urban activities are significant sources of total greenhouse gas emissions (36.8 and 48.6 % of total). The urban energy sector accounts for between 41.5 and 66.3 % of total energy emissions. Significant differences exist in the urban share of greenhouse gas emissions between developed and developing countries as well as among source sectors for geographic regions. The 50 largest urban emitting areas account for 38.8 % of all urban greenhouse gas emissions. We find that greenhouse gas emissions are significantly associated with population size, density, growth rates, and per capita income. Finally, comparison of our results to “bottom-up” estimates suggest that this research’s data and techniques are best used at the regional and global scales.
ISSN:0165-0009
1573-1480
DOI:10.1007/s10584-013-0977-z