Greenhouse gas emission accounting approaches in electricity generation systems: A review

Abstract Globally, electricity systems are responsible for two-thirds of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This area has become one of the main focuses for a wide range of scientific communities, and a large number of articles have been published that reported GHG emissions from the electricity sector using different approaches. Even though some review articles have been published on particular GHG emissions approaches, such as life cycle assessment (LCA), studies that investigated overall approaches are much rarer. A scoping review of these GHG emissions accounting approaches has thus been conducted in this study to explore their limitations and indicate possible future scope. From the review, it was found that the majority of the studies considered the LCA approach to investigate GHG emissions from electricity systems. Although the time-varying carbon intensity approach has potential features, it has received less attention. Furthermore, this review has highlighted some issues that need to be addressed by any new or existing approach that would deal with GHG emissions accounting in the near future. In addition, this review would be helpful for policymakers and electricity authorities when selecting appropriate approaches in accounting GHG emissions from the electricity system.