Reconciling reported and unreported HFC emissions with atmospheric observations.
We infer global and regional emissions of five of the most abundant hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) using atmospheric measurements from the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment and the National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan, networks. We find that the total CO2-equivalent emissions of the five HFCs from countries that are required to provide detailed, annual reports to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) increased from 198 (175-221) Tg-CO2-eq ⋅ y(-1) in 2007 to 275 (246-304) Tg-CO2-eq ⋅ y(-1) in 2012. These global warming potential-weighted aggregated emissions agree well with those reported to the UNFCCC throughout this period and indicate that the gap between reported emissions and global HFC emissions derived from atmospheric trends is almost entirely due to emissions from nonreporting countries. However, our measurement-based estimates of individual HFC species suggest that emissions, from reporting countries, of the most abundant HFC, HFC-134a, were only 79% (63-95%) of the UNFCCC inventory total, while other HFC emissions were significantly greater than the reported values. These results suggest that there are inaccuracies in the reporting methods for individual HFCs, which appear to cancel when aggregated together.
School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, United Kingdom; mark.lunt@bristol.ac.uk.
Mark F
MF
Lunt
School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, United Kingdom;
Matthew
M
Rigby
School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, United Kingdom;
Anita L
AL
Ganesan
Hadley Centre, Met Office, Exeter EX1 3PB, United Kingdom;
Alistair J
AJ
Manning
Centre for Global Change Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139;
Ronald G
RG
Prinn
School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, United Kingdom;
Simon
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4051-6760
S
O'Doherty
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093;
Jens
J
Mühle
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093;
Christina M
CM
Harth
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093;
Peter K
PK
Salameh
Hadley Centre, Met Office, Exeter EX1 3PB, United Kingdom;
Tim
T
Arnold
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093;
Ray F
RF
Weiss
Centre for Environmental Measurement and Analysis, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba 305-8506, Japan;
Takuya
T
Saito
Centre for Environmental Measurement and Analysis, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba 305-8506, Japan;
Yoko
Y
Yokouchi
Oceans & Atmosphere Flagship, Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Aspendale, VIC 3195, Australia;
Paul B
PB
Krummel
Oceans & Atmosphere Flagship, Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Aspendale, VIC 3195, Australia;
L Paul
LP
Steele
Oceans & Atmosphere Flagship, Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Aspendale, VIC 3195, Australia;
Paul J
PJ
Fraser
Kyungpook Institute of Oceanography and.
Shanlan
S
Li
Department of Oceanography, Kyungpook National University, Sangju 742-711, Republic of Korea;
Sunyoung
S
Park
Laboratory for Air Pollution and Environmental Technology, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf 8600, Switzerland;
Stefan
S
Reimann
Laboratory for Air Pollution and Environmental Technology, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf 8600, Switzerland;
Martin K
MK
Vollmer
Norwegian Institute for Air Research, 2027 Kjeller, Norway;
Chris
C
Lunder
Norwegian Institute for Air Research, 2027 Kjeller, Norway;
Ove
O
Hermansen
Norwegian Institute for Air Research, 2027 Kjeller, Norway;
Norbert
N
Schmidbauer
Department of Basic Science and Foundations, University of Urbino, Urbino 61029, Italy; and National Inter-University Consortium for Physics of the Atmosphere and Hydrosphere, Tolentino 62029, Italy.
Michela
M
Maione
Department of Basic Science and Foundations, University of Urbino, Urbino 61029, Italy; and National Inter-University Consortium for Physics of the Atmosphere and Hydrosphere, Tolentino 62029, Italy.
Jgor
J
Arduini
School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, United Kingdom;
Dickon
D
Young
School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, United Kingdom;
Peter G
PG
Simmonds
climate change; halocarbons; radiative forcing