Revisiting Kaya Identity to define an Emissions Indicators Pyramid

The impact of energy use on the planet due to related CO2 emissions is continuously increasing, despite the adoption of efficiency and decarbonisation policies and widespread environmental awareness. Climate change mitigation will only succeed if the driving forces of consumption and emissions are d...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: González Torres, Manuel M., Pérez-Lombard, Luis, Coronel Toro, Juan Francisco, Maestre, Ismael R.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/153036
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/153036
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128328
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Emissions drivers
Kaya identity
Energy drivers
Energy efficiency
Decomposition method
Descripción
Sumario:The impact of energy use on the planet due to related CO2 emissions is continuously increasing, despite the adoption of efficiency and decarbonisation policies and widespread environmental awareness. Climate change mitigation will only succeed if the driving forces of consumption and emissions are deeply analysed, and effective means are provided to reverse their trends. To this aim, the Kaya Identity framework is revisited to classify indicators and decomposition studies in the literature. A comprehensive pyramid approach is proposed for the progressive disaggregation and discussion of energy and emissions changes. The approach is applied to the OECD and non-OECD to provide meaningful regional analysis of past trends and future projections according to stated policy intentions. Results show that a hopeful change has already begun in the developed region due to a sustained decrease of the energy intensity and a promising reduction of the carbon intensity. Emerging economies follow the performance of developed nations since 2013, held back by later economic development. Activity slowdown, energy conservation, renewable electrification, efficient power plants and coal phase out appear as the keystones for decarbonisation. As a result, emissions stabilisation could have already been achieved as rises in emerging countries are offset by drops in developed nations. However, more stringent climate policies, especially targeting carbon drivers, are urgently needed to enable emissions reductions compatible with a global temperature increase of 1.5°C.