DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10886780
title: Anthropogenic emissions of CH4, N2O, F-gases and BC from GAINS, for EU-countries plus CH, NO, UK developed under the EYE-CLIMA project - March 2025 update

description: As part of the EYE-CLIMA project, GAINS emission data for CH4, N2O, BC and selected F-gases (HFC-125, HFC-134a, HFC-143a, HFC-23, HFC-32 and SF6) were released for all EU-27 countries plus UK, Switzerland, and Norway for the period 1990 to 2020 (with exception of F-gases, from 2005 only, and BC/CH4 emissions from agricultural waste burning, from 2000). Results have been documented in EYE-CLIMA deliverable D2.8 (http://folk.nilu.no/~rthompson/eyeclima_reports/EYECLIMA_D2.8.pdf), and they are publicly available at the Zenodo repository under https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11032177. All data is available on a 0.1°x0.1° grid and in monthly resolution. Emissions are attributed to the respective source categories according to GNFR.

The motivation of an update resulted from the need to extending the emission data time series to 2023. With underlying statistics and national emission data currently available till 2022 only (the latter submitted to UNFCCC only by December 2024), the historical data series also could only be established for 2022. Here we use the GAINS scenario feature to extrapolate between 2022 historical data and the first scenario point, 2025 which is based on IEA’s Word Energy Outlook 2023 (https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2023). Obviously, this also means that emission results for 2023 are not any more based on robust statistics but represent an extrapolation.

Extrapolation of spatially explicit data is only possible when the spatial resolution conveys a realistic signal. For the sector “agricultural waste burning” (files with “AWB” as sector, see notation below) spatial allocation is based on actual observation from satellites. As such data products on agricultural fires have been made available until 2022 only, no spatial or temporal signal exists for 2023. The time series provided thus has to end in 2022. No recommendation can be given to modellers, other than to either use 2022 also for 2023 (understanding that the pattern will be strikingly different) or to use a five-year average (which will remove a lot of spatial specificity).

The updated dataset covers files as follows (internally, all files now carry version number V05):

ALL_FLUX_ALL_EUR_MOD_MONTH_19900101_20231231_GAINS_IIASA_V05.csv

BC_FLUX_ALL_EUR_MOD_MONTH_19900101_20231231_GAINS_IIASA_V05.nc

BC_FLUX_AWB_EUR_MOD_MONTH_20000101_20221231_GAINS_IIASA_V05.nc

CH4_FLUX_ALL_EUR_MOD_MONTH_19900101_20231231_GAINS_IIASA_V05.nc

CH4_FLUX_AWB_EUR_MOD_MONTH_20000101_20221231_GAINS_IIASA_V05.nc

HFC_FLUX_ALL_EUR_MOD_YEAR_20050101_20231231_GAINS_IIASA_V05.nc

N2O_FLUX_ALL_EUR_MOD_MONTH_19900101_20231231_GAINS_IIASA_V05.nc

SF6_FLUX_ALL_EUR_MOD_YEAR_20050101_20231231_GAINS_IIASA_V05.nc

This is version 2.0 of the dataset. It extends from version 1.0 by covering into the year 2023, but also benefits from a number of additional GAINS improvements. Emissions of emitted compounds are provided as kg/m²/s. File names follow the notation developed for the H-Europe project EYE-CLIMA, i.e. species _ variable-type _ sector _ region _ method (MOD=model) _ timestep _ fromTime _ toTime _ model _ institute _ version . filetype.

This version is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15536170. The generic address of the dataset is https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10886780, resolving to the latest update available at Zenodo. No further updates are planned in EYE-CLIMA, so this version is expected to also reflect the final update within the project.

Compared to version 1.0, GAINS benefitted from a number of new developments such as the following:

*) Previously, GAINS has been available in five-year timesteps only (with the aim of allowing for scenarios at that resolution). For data version 1.0, a makeshift solution was found to convert into annual data. A recent update now allows, for historic data, to store and retrieve information on an annual basis (from 1990).

*) The energy data were obtained from IEA’s world energy balances 2024 (July version, https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/data-product/world-energy-balances#documentation), extending into 2022 and extrapolated towards 2025, downscaled from IEA to GAINS sectors and sub-sectors. Additionally, the annual activity of industrial production is estimated using a linear approach, based on five-year timestep data.

*) Agricultural statistics were retrieved from Eurostat (and from FAO globally) and extended to 2022, extrapolated towards 2025.

*) Interpretation of GAINS data was reconfirmed and updated in consultations with national experts of multiple EU countries. While the process resulted in revised emission projections to be used in the Clean Air Outlook 4 (see https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/air/clean-air-outlook_en). While the details of improvements on the individual aspects cannot be disclosed, they are useful to describe historic data most adequately, and have been integrated also in this assessment. That not only leads to changes in absolute emissions for a given year, but also affects trends that now are more plausible and confirmed through the exchange with the national experts.

*) Technical adjustments have improved the precision of temporal allocation of emissions and the conversion of grid sizes to actual area.