Vattenfall - Europe OECD

Europe OECD

The region Europe OECD includes the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom. This region currently has greenhouse gas emissions of 3.6 Gt CO₂e per year (in 2002). The business-as-usual scenario implies an increase to 4.7 Gt CO₂e per year in 2030.

Abatement potential

The abatement potential in Europe OECD is estimated to about 2.5 Gt CO₂e in 2030. The largest potential, in relative terms, is found in the buildings sector where the abatement potential is estimated to be above 60% of the business-as-usual emissions in 2030. This is followed by the Industry sector (ca 55%), Power (ca 45%) and Transport (40%). The Agriculture and waste sector has a much lower potential, slightly below 15% of business-as-usual emissions. No abatement potential has been found in the Forestry sector.

Abatement cost

The average cost varies substantially between the sectors. Within Buildings and Transport, there is a significant potential of negative cost abatement opportunities. Looking only at the abatement potential at a cost below € 40/tonne CO₂e, the average abatement cost in these two sectors are € -122/tonne CO₂e in and
€ -7.2/tonne CO₂e in transportation. Virtually all of the potential within these sectors come at a zero or negative cost. The other sectors have a cost of € 15/tonne CO₂e in Agriculture, € 16/tonne CO₂ in the Power sector and ca € 22/tonne CO₂e in the Industry sector. The average cost across all sectors turns out to be negative due to the significant amount of negative cost opportunities in the buildings and transportation sector. A more conservative estimate, valuing the negative cost opportunities at zero, would result in an average abatement cost of about € 10/tonne CO₂e in OECD Europe.