Detection and Attribution of Regional greenhouse gas Emissions in the UK (DARE-UK)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bristol
Department Name: Chemistry
Abstract
In order to mitigate the effects of climate change, governments, private companies and individual citizens are taking action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Our project will provide new information that can be used to better evaluate the change in emissions that result from these actions. We will help the UK government track the effectiveness of emissions reductions policies that have been implemented to meet the targets laid out in the Climate Change Act (2008), which mandates that GHG emissions are reduced by 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.
The UK has played a major part in recent scientific and technological advances in emissions reporting and evaluation. Its GHG emission inventory, which is compiled based on data relating to human activities and rates of emission from each activity, is world-leading. Furthermore, the UK is one of only two countries that regularly submits a second estimate of emissions, those derived from atmospheric measurements, as part of its annual United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) submission. This second "top-down" estimate can be used to assess where uncertainties lie in the inventory and where further development is needed. However, limitations exist in our scientific knowledge and in our technical capabilities that prevent the UK, or any other country, from further improving its emissions reports through the incorporation of atmospheric data. Through the NERC Greenhouse Gas & Emissions Feedback programme, which ended in 2017, we demonstrated the ability to quantify the UK's net national GHG fluxes using atmospheric observations. However, we have not yet been able to separately estimate fossil fuel and biospheric carbon dioxide sources and sinks, or determine the major sectors driving changes in the UK's methane emissions. This proposal will develop new science to address these needs, and pave the way towards the next generation of GHG evaluation methodologies. Our work will span four key areas:
1) Improving models of emissions from individual source and sink sectors to determine when and where GHG emissions to the atmosphere occur from both natural and anthropogenic systems.
2) Utilising new surface and satellite atmospheric GHG observations, such as isotopic measurements of methane and carbon dioxide, and measurements of co-emitted or exchanged gases (oxygen, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and ethane) to provide information on emissions from different sectors.
3) Utilising enhanced model-data fusion methods for making use of these new observations and for better quantifying uncertainties.
4) Integrating data streams to determine the highest level of confidence in the UK's emissions estimate.
To improve the transparency of national reports, scientists and policy makers have been strongly advocating for the combination of such methods in the reporting process. The UNFCCC, at its 2017 Conference of Parties, acknowledged the important role that emissions quantified through atmospheric observations could have in supporting inventory evaluation (SBSTA/2017/L.21). Through our close links to the inventory communities in the UK and around the world, the IPCC and to UK policy makers, we can ensure that our work will be used to update and improve the UK's GHG submission to the UNFCCC and will showcase methods of best-practice.
The UK has played a major part in recent scientific and technological advances in emissions reporting and evaluation. Its GHG emission inventory, which is compiled based on data relating to human activities and rates of emission from each activity, is world-leading. Furthermore, the UK is one of only two countries that regularly submits a second estimate of emissions, those derived from atmospheric measurements, as part of its annual United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) submission. This second "top-down" estimate can be used to assess where uncertainties lie in the inventory and where further development is needed. However, limitations exist in our scientific knowledge and in our technical capabilities that prevent the UK, or any other country, from further improving its emissions reports through the incorporation of atmospheric data. Through the NERC Greenhouse Gas & Emissions Feedback programme, which ended in 2017, we demonstrated the ability to quantify the UK's net national GHG fluxes using atmospheric observations. However, we have not yet been able to separately estimate fossil fuel and biospheric carbon dioxide sources and sinks, or determine the major sectors driving changes in the UK's methane emissions. This proposal will develop new science to address these needs, and pave the way towards the next generation of GHG evaluation methodologies. Our work will span four key areas:
1) Improving models of emissions from individual source and sink sectors to determine when and where GHG emissions to the atmosphere occur from both natural and anthropogenic systems.
2) Utilising new surface and satellite atmospheric GHG observations, such as isotopic measurements of methane and carbon dioxide, and measurements of co-emitted or exchanged gases (oxygen, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and ethane) to provide information on emissions from different sectors.
3) Utilising enhanced model-data fusion methods for making use of these new observations and for better quantifying uncertainties.
4) Integrating data streams to determine the highest level of confidence in the UK's emissions estimate.
To improve the transparency of national reports, scientists and policy makers have been strongly advocating for the combination of such methods in the reporting process. The UNFCCC, at its 2017 Conference of Parties, acknowledged the important role that emissions quantified through atmospheric observations could have in supporting inventory evaluation (SBSTA/2017/L.21). Through our close links to the inventory communities in the UK and around the world, the IPCC and to UK policy makers, we can ensure that our work will be used to update and improve the UK's GHG submission to the UNFCCC and will showcase methods of best-practice.
Planned Impact
The credibility and effectiveness of the UK Climate Change Act 2008 and the Paris Agreement requires transparent and accurate reporting of greenhouse gas emissions, in order to track progress towards meeting these ambitious emissions targets. This project develops new science that will improve the accuracy and transparency of the UK's national greenhouse gas emissions reports to the UNFCCC.
Our impact will target the following groups:
1) UK and other national inventory teams: Our work will directly benefit the government Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Defra, who are responsible for delivering the GHG inventory under the UNFCCC and Kyoto agreements. Our team comprises compilers for UK inventory sectors (Agriculture and LULUCF), and we will work closely with Ricardo Energy and Environment (contractors with overall responsibility for the national inventory), to ensure pull-through of our findings to the UK inventory. The impact will be improvements in monitoring progress towards climate goals, and ultimately better-informed decisions on how to reach those goals. Our work will also be relevant to inventory teams in other countries who wish to learn from the advances made in this project, particularly those in nearby countries covered by the same atmospheric datasets, e.g. Irish Environmental Protection Agency, European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme, European Commission Joint Research Centre. We will work with the UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) who report to Parliament on progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
2) Next generation of greenhouse gas scientists and policymakers: This work benefits from expertise and synergies between science and policy. We aim to provide training for PhD students, postdocs and for future government staff with careers in relevant areas.
3) The public: The general public are increasingly engaged in climate issues and wish to better understand their country's impact on climate.
We will engage with these users through the following methods/activities:
1) We will present and discuss our developments annually at the UK National Inventory Steering Committee (NISC). These developments will then be incorporated into any inventory improvement plans commissioned by BEIS. We will convene a steering group with representatives from BEIS, Ricardo, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and two related European projects (VERIFY, CHE), to ensure maximum impact for the UK inventory and international emissions evaluation efforts. We will update the UK's National Inventory Report at the outset and then again at the end of the project with the UK's strategy for top-down greenhouse gas emissions quantification. Toward the end of this project, we will organise a meeting at which key stakeholders and representatives of related European projects will meet to discuss their needs and identify synergies.
2) We will continue a highly successful greenhouse gas summer school, but now extend and open it to future government policy makers and inventory compilers, building in new research themes that will be developed through this project. The impact of this will be in helping to form the next generation of scientists and policy makers who are cognisant of the causes of climate change, and the role of atmospheric and terrestrial monitoring in helping us tackle the problem.
3) Our team has a history of effective engagement at events open to the general public. We will continue to represent our work at events such as NERC UnEarthed and Royal Institute Public Lectures. Our team also has a track record for press engagement (e.g. most recently featuring in the BBC "Counting Carbon" documentary), which we will continue throughout this project. Our impact here will be to make the issues understood by a wider audience, allowing them to be engaged in the national debate.
Our impact will target the following groups:
1) UK and other national inventory teams: Our work will directly benefit the government Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Defra, who are responsible for delivering the GHG inventory under the UNFCCC and Kyoto agreements. Our team comprises compilers for UK inventory sectors (Agriculture and LULUCF), and we will work closely with Ricardo Energy and Environment (contractors with overall responsibility for the national inventory), to ensure pull-through of our findings to the UK inventory. The impact will be improvements in monitoring progress towards climate goals, and ultimately better-informed decisions on how to reach those goals. Our work will also be relevant to inventory teams in other countries who wish to learn from the advances made in this project, particularly those in nearby countries covered by the same atmospheric datasets, e.g. Irish Environmental Protection Agency, European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme, European Commission Joint Research Centre. We will work with the UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) who report to Parliament on progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
2) Next generation of greenhouse gas scientists and policymakers: This work benefits from expertise and synergies between science and policy. We aim to provide training for PhD students, postdocs and for future government staff with careers in relevant areas.
3) The public: The general public are increasingly engaged in climate issues and wish to better understand their country's impact on climate.
We will engage with these users through the following methods/activities:
1) We will present and discuss our developments annually at the UK National Inventory Steering Committee (NISC). These developments will then be incorporated into any inventory improvement plans commissioned by BEIS. We will convene a steering group with representatives from BEIS, Ricardo, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and two related European projects (VERIFY, CHE), to ensure maximum impact for the UK inventory and international emissions evaluation efforts. We will update the UK's National Inventory Report at the outset and then again at the end of the project with the UK's strategy for top-down greenhouse gas emissions quantification. Toward the end of this project, we will organise a meeting at which key stakeholders and representatives of related European projects will meet to discuss their needs and identify synergies.
2) We will continue a highly successful greenhouse gas summer school, but now extend and open it to future government policy makers and inventory compilers, building in new research themes that will be developed through this project. The impact of this will be in helping to form the next generation of scientists and policy makers who are cognisant of the causes of climate change, and the role of atmospheric and terrestrial monitoring in helping us tackle the problem.
3) Our team has a history of effective engagement at events open to the general public. We will continue to represent our work at events such as NERC UnEarthed and Royal Institute Public Lectures. Our team also has a track record for press engagement (e.g. most recently featuring in the BBC "Counting Carbon" documentary), which we will continue throughout this project. Our impact here will be to make the issues understood by a wider audience, allowing them to be engaged in the national debate.
Organisations
- University of Bristol (Lead Research Organisation)
- Meteorological Office UK (Collaboration)
- University of Wollongong (Collaboration)
- California Institute of Technology (Project Partner)
- Ricardo (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Project Partner)
- World Meteorological Organization (Project Partner)
- Heidelberg University (Project Partner)
- Integrated Carbon Observing System (Project Partner)
- European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (Project Partner)
- National University of Ireland, Galway (Project Partner)
- Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (Project Partner)
Publications
Mühle J
(2022)
Global emissions of perfluorocyclobutane (PFC-318, <i>c</i>-C<sub>4</sub>F<sub>8</sub>) resulting from the use of hydrochlorofluorocarbon-22 (HCFC-22) feedstock to produce polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and related fluorochemicals
in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Monteil G
(2020)
The regional European atmospheric transport inversion comparison, EUROCOM: first results on European-wide terrestrial carbon fluxes for the period 2006-2015
in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Chawner H
(2024)
Atmospheric oxygen as a tracer for fossil fuel carbon dioxide: a sensitivity study in the UK
in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Stell A
(2022)
Modelling the growth of atmospheric nitrous oxide using a global hierarchical inversion
in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Wenger A
(2019)
Atmospheric radiocarbon measurements to quantify CO<sub>2</sub> emissions in the UK from 2014 to 2015
in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Western L
(2022)
A renewed rise in global HCFC-141b emissions between 2017-2021
in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Redington A
(2023)
Western European emission estimates of CFC-11, CFC-12 and CCl 4 derived from atmospheric measurements from 2008 to 2021
in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Ramsden A
(2022)
Quantifying fossil fuel methane emissions using observations of atmospheric ethane and an uncertain emission ratio
in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Lunt M
(2021)
Atmospheric observations consistent with reported decline in the UK's methane emissions (2013-2020)
in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Nguyen L
(2022)
Two decades of flask observations of atmospheric <i>d</i>(O<sub>2</sub>/N<sub>2</sub>), CO<sub>2</sub>, and APO at stations Lutjewad (the Netherlands) and Mace Head (Ireland), and 3 years from Halley station (Antarctica)
in Earth System Science Data
Yi L
(2023)
In Situ Observations of Halogenated Gases at the Shangdianzi Background Station and Emission Estimates for Northern China
in Environmental Science & Technology
Western L
(2021)
Estimates of North African Methane Emissions from 2010 to 2017 Using GOSAT Observations
in Environmental Science & Technology Letters
Zammit-Mangion A
(2022)
WOMBAT v1.0: a fully Bayesian global flux-inversion framework
in Geoscientific Model Development
Park S
(2021)
A decline in emissions of CFC-11 and related chemicals from eastern China
in Nature
An M
(2021)
Rapid increase in dichloromethane emissions from China inferred through atmospheric observations.
in Nature communications
Thompson RL
(2020)
Changes in net ecosystem exchange over Europe during the 2018 drought based on atmospheric observations.
in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
Nisbet EG
(2021)
Atmospheric methane and nitrous oxide: challenges alongthe path to Net Zero.
in Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
Nisbet E
(2020)
Methane Mitigation: Methods to Reduce Emissions, on the Path to the Paris Agreement
in Reviews of Geophysics
Nickless A
(2020)
Greenhouse gas observation network design for Africa
in Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology
Hoare T
(2020)
Development of an urban greenhouse gas modelling system to support a London monitoring network
in Weather
Redington A
(2023)
CFC-11 emissions are declining as expected in Western Europe
Description | We found a decline in the UK's methane emissions, consistent with atmospheric observations (Lunt et al., 2021). Using methods developed in DARE-UK, we were able to infer emissions of ozone depleting substances from Eastern Asia (e.g., An et al., 2021, Park et al., 2021). |
Exploitation Route | The methods developed in this project are valuable for researchers and policymakers interested in evaluating greenhouse gas emissions reports, using atmospheric data. |
Sectors | Environment |
URL | https://dareuk.blogs.bristol.ac.uk |
Description | We have worked with UK inventory teams to evaluate the UK's greenhouse gas emissions inventory (Lunt et al., 2021). Specifically, we closely examined the UK emissions inventory, and corroborated the decline in emissions reported by the UK. At COP26 in Glasgow, we showcased DARE-UK measurement techniques, by setting up instruments around the city. The data were presented on a live dashboard, that also contained explanatory material outlining how data were used for emissions evaluation: https://openghg.github.io/dashboard/. These efforts, and the wider efforts to evaluate national emissions was summarised in an article in The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/countries-may-be-under-reporting-their-greenhouse-gas-emissions-thats-why-accurate-monitoring-is-crucial-171645 |
First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
Sector | Environment |
Impact Types | Policy & public services |
Description | UK Emission Measurement System |
Amount | £1,372,621 (GBP) |
Funding ID | NE/Y001761/1 |
Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2023 |
End | 03/2025 |
Description | Met Office |
Organisation | Meteorological Office UK |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Expertise in inverse methods |
Collaborator Contribution | Exertise in atmospheric modelling |
Impact | Publications. |
Start Year | 2012 |
Description | University of Wollongong |
Organisation | University of Wollongong |
Country | Australia |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Model runs, data provision and processing, expertise in atmospheric modelling and statistics. |
Collaborator Contribution | Expertise in statistics |
Impact | Several publications, with further work in the pipeline. |
Start Year | 2013 |
Title | ACRG-Bristol/acrg: ACRG v0.2.0 |
Description | ACRG standardisation and inversion code v0.2.0 Added Ability to convert calibration scale in get_obs New "defaults" file that specifies inlets and instruments to use for particular time periods An obs.db SQLite database that specifies the location of all obs files and basic details about their contents (species, inlet, time range, etc.) notebooks directory for Jupyter notebooks notebooks/tutorials directory for notebook based tutorials a tmp directory to store random job script output files added a dev environment that includes spyder and a lighter environment that does not Changed get_single_site now returns a list of xarray datasets, one for each combination of inlet and site. If defaults are specified, the list will contain the default instruments and inlets for each period get_obs now returns a dictionary containing lists of datasets calibration scale and inlet are now attributes to obs datasets (e.g. ds.attrs["scale"]) fp_data_merge now works with new get_obs object The flux function will now look for species-total.nc named files first and then look for species.nc files. This will not be able to read both files. This can still accept an more explicit source such as co2-ff_*.nc as an alternative to this. arviz package version pinned to prevent conflict with pymc3 version |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | This software is used to evaluate emissions of greenhouse gases for the UK and other countries. |
URL | https://zenodo.org/record/6834888 |
Title | OpenGHG |
Description | A toolkit for greenhouse gas data analysis |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | Software is being used to evaluate the UK's greenhouse gas emissions |
Description | Newsletter for project Stakeholders |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | A newsletter was published online introducing the DARE-UK project to Stakeholders from Government, industry and greenhouse gas inventory compilers. As a result of this newsletter 40 individuals have agreed to join our stakeholder list and receive further updates on the project. Following the Newsletter we have also had 15 stakeholders confirm attendance at our upcoming stakeholder engagement event in June 2020. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://sway.office.com/VRIUfaRXSSFk7k6W?ref=Link&loc=play |
Description | Schools and Public Science Outreach Event (Futures Event) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Purpose: To educate and inspire school children and adults to learn more about greenhouse gases, what they do in their lives that could change their consumption of these and the kinds of instrumentation we use to measure greenhouse gases. Activities: Quizzes about greenhouse gas emissions from different animals and rating the carbon equivalent emissions of everyday activities; measuring CO2 in their breath; and making play dough greenhouse gas molecules. Daytime event: Four researchers engaged with 400+ primary and secondary school students over one day. Half the students attending were from schools in the top 30% most deprived decile. Quotes from students following the event " I am inspired to keep learning and not be afraid to ask questions", "It makes you have bigger dreams for the future" Evening Event: Three researchers engaged with 500+ adults . Quotes from the Event "Great to see researchers taking time out to connect with young people and the public" "It was so lovely seeing so many researchers excited to talk about their work. Especially those who made it interactive" |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.futures2019.co.uk/events/we-the-curious/ |