An innovative accounting framework for CO2 emissions in the power sector: Based on the energy flow relationship between the power and heat sectors

Under the global imperative for climate change mitigation, accurate CO2 emissions accounting to compile reliable emission inventories are fundamental for research and policy efforts aimed at power sector decarbonization. However, there is currently a lack of precise datasets specifically targeting CO2 emissions from China's power sector. This study proposes a novel framework for calculating CO2 emissions from the power sector based on the energy balance table, utilizing the energy flow relationship between the power and thermal sectors. This framework effectively separates the emissions from the specific production activities of these closely linked sectors. Using this framework, we calculated the CO2 emissions from the power sector at both the national level and across 30 provinces in China for the years 1997–2021. Subsequently, we implement driving factor decomposition to demonstrate the necessity of our accounting framework, complemented by technical validation through uncertainty analysis and comparing against existing datasets. In summary, our inventories are demonstrated to provide more comprehensive and accurate power sector emission estimates and can offer reliable data support for research and policy formulation concerning CO2 emission reduction in the power sector. Moreover, the proposed model framework can be applied to account for CO2 emissions in the power sectors of other countries.