Gridded Emissions of Air Pollutants for the period 1970–2012 within
EDGAR v4.3.2
Authors: Crippa Monica , Guizzardi Diego , Muntean Marilena , Schaaf Edwin , Dentener Frank , van Aardenne John A. , Monni Suvi , Doering Ulrike , Olivier Jos G. J , Pagliari Valerio , Janssens-Maenhout Greet 
Published: April 2018

Abstract. The new version v4.3.2 of the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR v4.3.2) compiles gaseous and particulate air pollutant emissions, making use of the same anthropogenic sectors, time period (1970–2012) and international activity data as used for estimating GHG emissions as described in a companion paper (Janssens-Maenhout et al., 2017). All human activities, except large scale biomass burning and land use, land-use change and forestry, are included in the emissions calculation. The bottom-up compilation methodology of sector-specific emissions was applied consistently for all world countries, providing methodological transparency and comparability between countries. In addition to the activity data used to estimate GHG emissions, air pollutant emissions are determined by the process technology and end-of-pipe emission reduction abatements. Region-specific emission factors and abatement measures were selected from recent scientific available literature and reports. Compared to previous versions of EDGAR, the EDGAR v4.3.2 dataset covers all gaseous and particulate air pollutants, has extended time series (1970–2012) and has been evaluated with QC/QA procedures both for the emission time series (e.g. PM mass balance, gap-filling for missing data, split-up of countries over time, etc.) and gridmaps (full coverage of the world, complete mapping of EDGAR emissions with sector-specific proxies, etc.). This publication focuses on the gaseous air pollutants of CO, NOx, SO2, total NMVOC and NH3 and on the aerosols PM10, PM2.5, BC and OC. Considering the 1970–2012 time period, global emissions of SO2 increased from 99 to 103 Tg, CO from 441 to 562 Tg, NOx from 68 to 122 Tg, NMVOC from 119 to 170 Tg, NH3 from 25 to 59 Tg, PM10 from 37 to 65 Tg, PM2.5 from 24 to 41 Tg, BC from 2.7 to 4.5 Tg and OC from 9 to 11 Tg. We present the country-specific emission totals and analyse the larger emitting countries (including the European Union), to provide insights on major sector contributions. In addition, per capita and per GDP emissions and implied emission factors – the apparent emissions per unit of production or energy consumption are presented. We find that the implied EFs are higher for low income countries compared to high income countries, but in both cases decreasing from 1970 to 2012. The comparison with other global inventories, such as HTAP v2.2 and CEDS, reveals insights on the uncertainties as well as the impact of data revisions (e.g. activity data, emission factors, etc.). As an additional metric we analyse the emission ratios of some pollutants to CO2 (e.g. CO/CO2, NOx/CO2, NOx/CO and SO2/CO2) by sector, region and time to identify any decoupling of air pollutant emissions from energy production activities and to demonstrate the potential of such ratios to compare to satellite derived emission data. Gridded emissions are also made available for the 1970–2012 historic time series, disaggregated for 26 anthropogenic sectors using updated spatial proxies. The analysis of the evolution of hot spots over time allowed us to identify areas with growing emissions and where emissions should be constrained to improve global air quality (e.g. China, India, Middle East and some Southern American countries are often characterized by high emitting areas which are changing rapidly compared to Europe or USA where stable or decreasing emissions are evaluated). Sector-and component specific contributions to gridcell emissions may help the modelling and satellite communities to disaggregate atmospheric column amounts and concentrations into main emitting sectors. This work addresses not only the emission inventory and modelling communities, but also aims to broaden the usefulness information available in a global emission inventory such as EDGAR to also include the measurement community. Data are publicly available online through the EDGAR website http://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/overview.php?v=432_AP&amp;SECURE=123 and registered under DOI: https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2904/JRC_DATASET_EDGAR.