GHG Emissions Sources
Definition
GHG Emissions Sources are any identifiable physical artefacts that at any time during their lifecycle act as emitters of green house gas, that is they release into the Earth's atmosphere any of the seven gases mandated under the Kyoto Protocol and to be included in national inventories under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Physically, GHG Emissions may be produced due to:
- current ongoing chemical processes that occur while in contact with the atmosphere (combustion, chemical processing) or
- through leaks of previously generated gases from their containers.
In turn the main chemical processes can be classified as either
- combustion, where the primary aim is energy generation
- process emissions, where the primary aim is some chemical or mechanical process
In turn combustion can be classified as either:
- stationary, where the combustion process takes place in a stationary facility
- mobile, where combustion happens in mobile facility (in the context of transport)
The above emissions modalities are forming the GHG Emissions Taxonomy.
GHG Mapping to Entities
Mapping (asigning) a quantum of GHG emission to an entity can be on the basis of their production or consumption role and it will typically involve the definition of a GHG Inventory Boundary
- In a corporate reporting context, every Business Sector has processes, products, or services that generates direct and/or indirect emissions from one or more of the above broad source categories.
- In a Project Finance context, each project finance subcategory would have its own footprint
- In a geographic reporting context (city, region, country) it is the sum of residential, commercial and institutional activity within a defined boundary that generates emissions
