Long-term historical trends in air pollutant emissions in Asia: Regional Emission inventory in ASia (REAS) version 3

Abstract

A long-term historical emission inventory of air and climate pollutants in East, Southeast, and South Asia during 1950–2015 was developed as the Regional Emission inventory in ASia version 3 (REASv3). REASv3 provides details of emissions from major anthropogenic sources for each country and its sub-regions and also provides monthly gridded data with 0.25∘ × 0.25∘ resolution. The average total emissions in Asia during 1950–1955 and during 2010–2015 (growth rates in these 60 years estimated from the two averages) are as follows: SO2: 3.2 Tg, 42.4 Tg (13.1); NOx: 1.6 Tg, 47.3 Tg (29.1); CO: 56.1 Tg, 303 Tg (5.4); non-methane volatile organic compounds: 7.0 Tg, 57.8 Tg (8.3); NH3: 8.0 Tg, 31.3 Tg (3.9); CO2: 1.1 Pg, 18.6 Pg (16.5) (CO2 excluding biofuel combustion 0.3 Pg, 16.8 Pg (48.6)); PM10: 5.9 Tg, 30.2 Tg (5.1); PM2.5: 4.6 Tg, 21.3 Tg (4.6); black carbon: 0.69 Tg, 3.2 Tg (4.7); and organic carbon: 2.5 Tg, 6.6 Tg (2.7). Clearly, all the air pollutant emissions in Asia increased significantly during these 6 decades, but situations were different among countries and regions. Due to China's rapid economic growth in recent years, its relative contribution to emissions in Asia has been the largest. However, most pollutant species reached their peaks by 2015, and the growth rates of other species were found to be reduced or almost zero. On the other hand, air pollutant emissions from India showed an almost continuous increasing trend. As a result, the relative ratio of emissions of India to that of Asia has increased recently. The trend observed in Japan was different from the rest of Asia. In Japan, emissions increased rapidly during the 1950s–1970s, which reflected the economic situation of the period; however, most emissions decreased from their peak values, which were approximately 40 years ago, due to the introduction of control measures for air pollution. Similar features were found in the Republic of Korea and Taiwan. In the case of other Asian countries, air pollutant emissions generally showed an increase along with economic growth and motorization. Trends and spatial distribution of air pollutants in Asia are becoming complicated. Data sets of REASv3, including table of emissions by countries and sub-regions for major sectors and fuel types, and monthly gridded data with 0.25∘ × 0.25∘ resolution for major source categories are available through the following URL: https://www.nies.go.jp/REAS/index.html (last access: 31 October 2020).