In Armenia, greenhouse gases (GHG) have the most emission from the energy sector, as evidenced with the data submitted by National Greenhouse Gas Cadastre. The data of RA National Greenhouse Gas Cadastre for1990-2017 were presented by UNDP Senior Expert on Energy Efficiency Tigran Sekoyan at a panel discussion on "Energy Development in Armenia under Paris Agreement" held at the EcoLur Press Club on February 26.
He noted that Armenia's greenhouse gases make up 0.02% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. In 2017, Armenia's GHG annual emissions amounted to 10,624 Gg CO2 eq.. "In 2017, greenhouse gas emissions were 3% higher (313 Gg CO2 eq.) as compared with the emissions in 2016, about 59% (15,231 Gg CO2 eq) below the emissions in 1990, whereas they increased by about 69% as compared to 2000," Tigran Sekoyan said.
In 2017, the Energy Sector accounted for 66.7% of Armenia’s total GHG emissions. The second largest source of emissions was AFOLU Sector (without Forestry and Other Land Use) with a share of 18.5%, followed by IPPU and Waste Sectors – 8.9% and 5.8%, respectively.
Main Findings of Water Cadastre
Covering Energy Sector, the speaker mentioned there is a decrease in emissions observed in this sector. The Energy Sector emissions in 2017 was 67% (7,087.4 Gg CO2 eq.), which made 31.2% of 1990 emissions’ level and were 7.0% higher than those in 2016.
Tendencies of Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Emissions from the Energy Sector consist of two main categories: fossil fuel combustion and fugitive emissions from natural gas. The majority of the sector’s emissions (77%) results from fossil fuel combustion, whereas 23% constituted fugitive emissions from natural gas.
Road transport generated 24.8% GHG of the Energy Sector emissions in 2017, Energy production – 18%, households accounted to 18 % e, emissions from the fuels used by Commercial/Institutional category and different industries made 7.6% and 6.6% correspondingly, while emissions from Off-road Vehicles and Machinery in agriculture accounted only for 1%.
GHG Emissions CO2 eq. in Energy Sector in 2017
Speaking about the emissions of the natural gas, the presented noted, “Natural gas is the main consumed fuel in our country. Natural gas accounted for 61% of Armenia’s TPES in 2017, 85% of the fossil fuel (including jet fuel) consumption. Over 83% of CO2 emissions from fuel combustion (without international bunker) in 2017 originated from natural gas.” Fugitive emissions from natural gas accounted for 77.47 Gg CH4 in 2017.
.png)
Fugitive Emissions from Natural Gas (CH4)
Tigran Sekoyan also presented the dynamics of emissions in the field of electricity and heat production since 1990. Emissions in this sector were high in 1990, then sharply decreased in 1995, after which there is a gradual increase recorded.
"This subcategory includes emissions from the production of both electricity and heat. In 1990, there was a centralized heat supply, and emissions were recorded at the source where the fuel was burned. Now, the combustion of fuel for heating has been transferred to households, that is why there is an increase in GHG emissions in the housing sub-category," Tigran Sekoyan said.
Time series of CO2 emissions from Main Activity Electricity and Heat Production, Gg, 1990-2017
Due to wide-scale gasification, currently 634 settlements in Armenia are using natural gas: with its gas deliverability level of 96% Armenia is one of the leaders in the world.
Manufacturing Industries and Construction category the largest consumers of natural gas were Non-Metallic Minerals and Food Processing, Beverages and Tobacco sub-categories.
After 1990 in this category there was also a sharp decline in GHG emissions, then an increase with fluctuations and a decrease again," he said.
Emissions from Manufacturing Industries and Construction source subcategory 2017 (CO2 eq.)
Time series for GHG emissions in Industries and Construction Subcategory for 1990-2017
According to the expert, Armenia currently uses cleaner fuels from an environmental point of view, because the natural gas emission factor is the lowest one among fossil fuels.
In 2017, the greenhouse gas emissions from road transportation amounted to 1,758.1 Gg CO2 eq.
In time series of 1990-2017, we have a decline at the beginning, then a gradual increase, which is also conditioned by the improvement of the living standards of the population," Tigran Sekoyan said.
Findings of emission estimates in Transport category, Gg, 2017
In Armenia fuel consumption structure in the road transport is quite specific, considering the absolute predominance of natural gas which accounted for above 62% of the total fuel consumption in the road transport in 2017. Currently there is a significant increase of the gas-filling stations number which has reached 379 operating units.
The trends of GHG emissions per sectors and time series of GHG emissions of Energy Sector per subcategories (Գգ CO2eq․) for 1990-2017 were presented.
March 11, 2021 at 13:58