Comparative study of greenhouse gas emissions between national government and local governments in Korea

The purpose of this study is to calculate and analyze emissions using the uniformity of national and local emission calculation institutions, unification of calculation methods, and common statistical data. The Korea Environment Corporation has reported the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from local governments in Korea since 2015. On the other hand, the reliability of the emissions amount has been questioned because of the inconsistency of the figures between the national emissions calculated by the green in regulation and the total emissions of local governments. To validate the reliability of the emissions report, this study examined the causes of the differences between the national government and 17 local governments nationwide over a 10-year period from 2005 to 2014. The national GHG inventory was designed to make reporting at home and abroad, but the local GHG inventory was built to support the GHG reduction activities of local governments. The most important reason why the sum of state and local governments GHG emissions did not coincide was the difference in the guidelines applied to establish the calculation standard for the GHG inventory. Discrepancies in the calculation criteria were also shown to cause differences in the calculation methodology, range of calculation categories, emissions coefficients, and available activity data.