A 1990 global emission inventory of anthropogenic sources of carbon monoxide on 1° × 1° developed in the framework of EDGAR/GEIA

A global emission inventory of carbon monoxide (CO) emissions with 1° × 1° latitude-longitude resolution was compiled for 1990 on a sectoral basis. The sectoral sources considered include large-scale biomass burning (29%, of which savanna burning, 18%, and deforestation, 11%), fossil fuel combustion (27%, predominantly in road transport), biofuel combustion (19%, predominantly fuelwood combustion), agricultural waste burning (21%) and industrial process sources (4%). The inventory was compiled using mostly national statistics as activity data, emission factors at global or country level, and specific grid maps to convert, by sector, country total emissions to the 1° × 1° grid. A special effort was made to compile a global inventory of biofuel use, since this was considered to be a significant source on a global level, and a major source in some regions such as India and China. The global anthropogenic source of CO in 1990 is estimated at about 974 Tg CO yr-1. The inventory is available on a sectoral basis on a 1° × 1° grid for input to global atmospheric models and on a regional/country basis for policy analysis. © 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Importance of this Paper: Carbon monoxide plays an essential role in environmental issues at various spatial scales. It is an important compound a€ecting the oxidising capacity of the troposphere by reacting with OH radicals thereby influencing the lifetime of many atmospheric species, such as methane, HCFCs and HFCs, as well as the formation of tropospheric ozone, globally important as greenhouse gas and locally as contributor to smog formation. Surprisingly, to date little attention has been paid to a global spatially specific estimate of CO emissions, though the actual formation of smog and tropospheric ozone depends on the local mix of pollutants that chemically interact.