Analysis of Energy-Related Greenhouse Gas Emission in the Korea’s Building Sector: Use National Energy Statistics

Abstract

Every country in the world is striving to deal with climate change such as global warming and environmental pollution caused by greenhouse gas emission as well as the depletion of fossil fuel including oil, coal, gas, etc. Countries have set long-term greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in this effort. Korea announced its goal to reduce the national greenhouse gas in medium-and long-term by 25.7% of the observed value of 2030 greenhouse gas emission (BAU) in 2011, and set to reduce the greenhouse gas by 18.2% in the building sector. In addition, according to IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), greenhouse gas emission in the building sector takes up about 19% of entire emission, a very high percentage along with 31% from the industry sector. This paper calculates the national and building sector greenhouse gas emission based on energy consumption statistics, in order for Korea to achieve Post-2020 greenhouse gas reduction target, predict building sector's greenhouse gas emission, and implement and reduction policy. The greenhouse gas emission from buildings is about 124.9 million ton CO 2 equivalent as of 2015, taking up about 20% of greenhouse gas emission in Korea's entire sectors, and decreased in 1998 from 105.0 million ton CO 2 eq in 1997. However, the greenhouse gas emission consistently increased from 119.3 million ton CO 2 eq in 2007 to 127.1 million ton CO 2 eq in 2010 and 127.3 million ton CO 2 eq in 2013.

An Analysis of the Effectiveness of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Policy for Office Building Design in South Korea

“…The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [5] reported that the global building sector is responsible for approximately 19% of all the GHG emissions. In South Korea, energy consumption in the building sector accounted for approximately 17% of the country's total energy consumption in 2015 and about 20% of all the GHG emissions [6]. As the building sector has been identified as the sector with the greatest potential to reduce GHG emissions in a cost-effective manner [7], innovations in the design of buildings are necessary to cope with climate change and reduce GHG emissions in South Korea as well as on a global scale [8].…”

“…According to Kim and Jeong [6], as the energy consumption by buildings in South Korea is rapidly increasing and because the building sector has shown outstanding potential in reducing its energy consumption, reducing GHG emissions in the sector should be a key measure of South Korea's national plan to reduce GHG emissions, overall. Although the South Korean government set an energy reduction target of 18.1%, or 35.8 million ton CO 2 eq, in business as usual (BAU) by 2030, it raised the target to 32.7% (64.5 million ton CO 2 eq) in July 2018 [9].…”

“…Basic research on reducing GHG emissions in South Korea's building sector has included two recent projects: (1) estimating emissions in buildings based on national statistics [6]; and (2) evaluating the potential of alternative scenarios to reduce emissions [8]. However, research on reducing GHG emissions remains insufficient.…”

“…Kim and Jeong [6] used a GHG emissions estimation method that meets international standards and a database of statistics regarding energy consumption that lists monthly production and sales records of energy suppliers (i.e., national approval statistics) to calculate GHG emissions of buildings by year, energy source, and region. They observed that GHG emissions vary depending on different To limit the examination of the effects on South Korean policy to reduce GHG emissions in the building sector to the architectural elements of building design only, information about other elements, such as the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems and a range of plant equipment were excluded from data collection.…”

“…Kim and Jeong [6] used a GHG emissions estimation method that meets international standards and a database of statistics regarding energy consumption that lists monthly production and sales records of energy suppliers (i.e., national approval statistics) to calculate GHG emissions of buildings by year, energy source, and region. They observed that GHG emissions vary depending on different factors of GHG emissions caused by energy sources uses.…”