Assessment of carbon intensity of the Tatarstan economy for environmental management

The paper presents the results of assessing the carbon intensity of the economy at a regional level based on the approach developed by the authors. The attempts to optimize the environmental management are often associated with the transition to a "low-carbon" economy, but the reduction of carbon intensity is considered mainly from the economic point of view. However, the structure of land use is an important factor of low-carbon development. The proposed approach allows comparing the intensity of natural and anthropogenic carbon flows, with due account of the absorption capacity of forests and agricultural land.

The IPCC guidelines for greenhouse gas inventory were used to assess the carbon intensity and the contribution of forests and agricultural land to carbon dioxide sequestration was estimated using the Guidelines for quantifying greenhouse gases absorption by the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The project was carried out for the Republic of Tatarstan. The calculations are based on the official data on fuel volumes used by economic sectors and administrative regions of Tatarstan, as well as the data on land use structure, verified with the satellite images.

The region has a diversified structure of economy and land use. The amount of CO₂ emissions and the absorption capacity of natural and transformed landscapes were estimated within the boundaries of administrative regions and correlated to the gross territorial product (GTP). The resulting values of the carbon balance and differentiation of this indicator over the territory of the region allows conclusions about the natural landscapes potential to compensate the economic activities pressure. The potential of natural systems significantly exceeds the anthropogenic load in the areas with a "positive" carbon balance, while in the areas with a "negative" carbon balance CO₂ emissions exceed the capacity of natural systems to absorb it. Thus, the carbon intensity as an indicator of environment impact is a promising direction for the development of integrated environmental and economic assessment of the results of nature management at the regional level. Comparison of the carbon intensity with the carbon sequestration potential could be used to improve the structure of land use for environmental management purposes.

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