Comparison of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Road Transportation in Local Cities/Counties of Gyeonggi Province by Calculation Methodologies

The Korean government decided to reduce 30% of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions BAU in 2020. Since many efforts to reduce emissions are urgently needed in Korea, the central administrative organization urges local governments to establish their own reduction schemes. Among many GHG emission categories, the emission from mobile source in Gyeonggi Province accounted for 25.3% of total emissions in 2007 and further the emission from road transport sector occupied the most dominant portion in this transportation category. The objective of this study was to compare 3 types of GHG emissions from road transport sector in 31 local cities/counties of Gyeonggi Province, which have been estimated by Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 methodologies. As results, the GHG emission rates by the Tier 1 and Tier 2 were 19,991 kt-CO2 Eq/yr and 18,511 kt-CO2 Eq/yr, respectively. On the other hand, the emission rate by Tier 3 excluding a branch road emission portion was 18,051 kt-CO2 Eq/yr. In addition, the total emission rate including all the main and branch road portions in Gyeonggi Province was 24,152 kt-CO2 Eq/yr, which was estimated by a new Tier 3 methodology. Based on this study, we could conclude that Tier 3 is a reasonable methodology than Tier 1 or Tier 2. However, more accurate and less uncertain methodology must be developed by expanding traffic survey areas and adopting a suitable model for traffic volumes.