Iran Targets Emissions Reductions
Iran reduced its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 1.34bn metric tons over the last 18 years by replacing liquid fuels with natural gas, figures show.
The country will continue to reduce that emissions footprint through gas, a National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) official has said. Speaking on March 2, director of the environmental, health and safety (EHS) department for NIGC Mohammad-Reza Yousefi Pour said that, with full gasification of the industrial sector, emissions would decrease by 65% in Iran. He did not specify how long a period would be required for that decrease to take effect.
According to the latest annual report from Iran’s energy ministry, the country’s emissions stood at 547mn tons in 2014, of which 237mn tons were from power plants.
A decrease in the use of liquid fuels has helped to decrease total emissions. Since 2012, the country’s power plants have more than halved their liquid fuels consumption to about 10bn litres. However, to curb the burning of liquid fuels completely, the country would need to increase gas deliveries to power plants by more than 15bn m3/yr.
According to the latest statistics from the National Iranian Oil, Refinery and Distribution Company (NIORDC), the country also continues to decrease its overall consumption of liquid fuels while substantially increasing its natural gas usage. Collectively the country consumed 84bn litres of liquid fuels in total during 2014. Of that, diesel and heavy fuel oil (mazut) consumption decreased by 27.7% and 5% respectively. Conversely, natural gas consumption increased by 12% year-on-year to about 156bn m3, an increase of almost 255% from the 44bn m3 of gas consumed 18 years ago in 1997.
According to documents obtained by NGE, Iran’s total gas consumption during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, which began on March 21, 2015, was 147.5 bn m3, a growth of 7% year-to-year. The documents also say that the industrial sector consumed more than 27bn m3 in this period, about 2% more than last year.
Iran generated 257bn kilowatt-hours of electricity in the last fiscal year, ending March 21 2015, Iran's energy ministry said, with each kWh generated releasing 922 grams of emissions.
Iran Desk