Agriculture emissions for sub-Saharan Africa

[Jonathan Finighan]

Hi there,

 

I am interested in annual emissions data for agriculture for sub-Saharan Africa. I have a question about an apparent discrepancy between the figure given for this sector in the CAIT database, and the figures in the report from the US-EPA which is cited as the source of CAIT data on non-CO2 emissions from agriculture in CAIT: Greenhouse Gas Sources and Methodologies.

 

The figure on the CAIT database for annual emissions for the agriculture sector for sub-Saharan Africa, in 2000, is 293.5 million tCO2e.

 

The figure given for Africa (not just sub-Saharan) for 2005 in US-EPA, Global Anthropogenic Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gas Emissions: 1990-2020. 2006, US Environmental Protection Agency: Washington, D.C., USA, is 1,010.98 million tCO2e.

 

This is a very large discrepancy. I do not think it can be explained by the different regions (Africa vs sub-Saharan Africa). The US-EPA figure seems to coincide with the charts in the IPCC AR4 (http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg3/ar4-wg3-chapter8.pdf) see page 504, top right hand corner. The AR4 also cites the US-EPA as the source of its data.

 

Am I missing something here? As far as I can tell the CAIT is using the same figures and the same source. What is going on?

 

Many thanks for your help,

 

Jonathan

 

 

Jonathan Finighan

Forests Philanthropy Action Network (FPAN)

Email: jona...@finrea.com.au

Phone: +44 (0)2074 991 167

Mobile: +44 (0)7505 399 947

 

[John.Mc-...@ec.europa.eu]

Thank you very much for sending me these emails but I would be grateful if you could take me off your mailing lists.

 

John McClintock.

---

From: climate-analysis...@googlegroups.com [mailto:climate-analysis...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Jonathan Finighan
Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 10:42 AM
To: climate-analysis...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Agriculture emissions for sub-Saharan Africa

[JackWRI]

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Thanks,
Jack Warner

> Email: jonat...@finrea.com.au

[JackWRI]

Posted on behalf of Tom Damassa, WRI:
=============
Jonathan -

Thanks very much for your question. You've highlighted an area of CAIT
that certainly may need additional clarification on the web site.

As far as I can tell, the reason for the difference is that the EPA
estimate is for the entire region--an estimate that is made separately
from the individual country estimates they report (you'll note that
they do not include estimates for most African nations, only about 6
countries).

Conversely, the CAIT total for "Sub-Saharan Africa" is computed as the
sum of all countries in our regional definition. Since individual
country data is unavailable for most sub-saharan Africa countries
(except 6), the total is artificially lower. This is an instance where
a lack of available data renders a misleading regional aggregate.

This is a problem and in the forthcoming update of the CAIT-Intl data
set, we'll either make regional totals unavailable if country data are
missing or make sure to note for users that a regional total may not
include totals for all countries within that region.

Thanks again for bringing this to our attention.

Let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns.

Cheers,

Tom Damassa

Climate and Energy Program

World Resources Institute


On Oct 23, 4:41 am, "Jonathan Finighan" <Jonat...@finrea.com.au>
wrote:

> Email: jonat...@finrea.com.au