GHG emissions from electricity consumption: A case study of Hong Kong from 2002 to 2015 and trends to 2030

Electricity consumption in cities is steadily increasing. Using a life cycle approach and fuel mix data from power companies’ sustainability reports, this paper analyzes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from electricity consumption in Hong Kong. The results show that coal contributed on an average 74.3 percent, liquefied natural gas 25.1 percent, and oil 0.6 percent of the thermal energy consumed for generating electricity in Hong Kong between 2002 and 2015. Besides, Hong Kong imported an average of 7.96 billion kWh per year net electricity from a nuclear power plant in Shenzhen. During this period, GHG emissions from annual electricity consumption ranged between 27.0 and 34.1 million tons (MT) and the emission factor ranged between 702 and 792 g CO2-eq/kWh. Hong Kong’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased steadily from USD 176 billion in 2002 to USD 297 billion by 2015. As a result, Hong Kong’s electricity productivity increased from 4.62 to 6.75 USD/kWh while GHG emission from electricity consumption per GDP decreased from 0.153 to 0.104 MT CO2-eq/USD billion. Hong Kong’s annual electricity consumption was predicted over the short-term period (2016–2020) and medium term (up to year 2030). Electricity consumption is likely to increase to 44.63 billion kWh by 2030 while GHG emissions from electricity consumption would increase to 33.92 MT of CO2-eq. The implications are discussed at the end of the paper.