Environmental Results

See also: Results View
Result Type: Environment

You can display results for any of the effects for which you have specified environmental loadings in your tree branch structure.  Results can be shown organized by branch, effect, fuel, scenario, year and region (in multi-regional areas).  Environmental effect results are only available if you have checked "Energy Sector Effect Loadings" in the General: Settings: Scope & Scale screen.  Non-energy sector effects are also available if you check "Energy Sector Effect Loadings" in the same screen.  

In addition to specifying results for an individual effect, you can also show the combined global warming potential (GWP) of one or more greenhouse gases (GHGs).  GWP results can be shown measured in terms of the equivalent amount of Carbon (C) or Carbon Dioxide (CO2). Reports measured in terms of CO2 are a factor of 44/12 larger than those measured in terms of carbon. The global warming potentials of each pollutant can be edited on the General:Effects screen and default to the standard values recommended for 100-years integration by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). For GWP reports you can choose between 20, 100 year and 500 year time horizons. Based on the time horizon you select, LEAP uses different sets of global warming potentials for the non-CO2 gases that reflect the relative potential of the gas over each period. Since GWP factors are always expressed relative to carbon dioxide, the GWP of Carbon Dioxide is set to 1.0 for every time horizon. The default GWP factors correspond to those recommended by the IPCC in its Second Assessment Report (ARII).  However, you can manually edit these default values in the General:Effects screen, or you can switch among whole sets of GWP factors corresponding to the first, second, third and fourth IPCC assessment reports.  

When viewing environmental loadings, results are available in four different formats:

  • Individual effects:  In this format effects are reported in their standard physical units as specified on the General: Effects screen.   Note that these effects can include emissions as well as any other direct impacts.

  • Direct GHG Emissions (at Point of Emissions):  This result shows direct GHG emissions at the point where emissions are produced in 20, 100 and 500-year GWP values.  These emissions are shown at the demand, transformation and non-energy sector branches corresponding to where the emissions were produced (either through combustion or some sort of fugitive emission).  They may also include sinks (negative emissions).

  • Direct (Demand) plus Indirect (Transformation) GHG Emissions Allocated to Demand Branches:  This result shows100-year GWP values for direct emissions from demand branches plus the indirect Transformation emissions associated with those demand branches.  This result type does NOT include GHG emissions specified under the non-energy sector branches in LEAP.  

  • Indirect (Transformation) GHG Emissions Allocated to Demand Branches:  This result shows 100-year GWP values for indirect (Transformation) emissions associated with particular demand branches.  This result type does NOT include GHG emissions specified under the non-energy sector branches in LEAP.

Note that only the first two result types are shown by default.  If you want to see the second two result types go to the General: Results to Save Screen and enable those additional result types.  Bear in mind that the more results you enable the slower calculations will become.

For all of these types of environmental results, LEAP uses a territorial accounting approach similar to the conventions used by the IPCC and UNFCCC for National GHG Emissions Inventory Guidelines.  This approach accounts for fugitive and combustion emissions that occur within the boundaries of a LEAP area including emissions that were caused by energy sector operations that resulted in a final fuel being exported (e.g. operations of power plants or refineries within a country).  It excludes emissions that ultimately occur when a country exports a primary fuel that is consumed in another area.