Construction of abatement cost curves: The case of F-gases

Most of scientific research on Greenhouse Gases (GHG) focuses on CO2 emissions. But non-CO2 gases (mainly F-gases in the form of HFCs, PFCs, and SF6) are more potent at trapping heat within the atmosphere. Currently, F-gases constitute a small proportion of GHG emissions but they are extremely high Global Warming Potential gases. At the same time, they are expected to increase massively due to the expansion of some emitting industries, while the atmospheric lifetimes of PFCs and SF6 are very long. This study analyzes the economic and technical assumptions in abatement cost calculation in the case of the F-gases. The important factors for differences among countries in average mitigation costs are discussed and the least cost curve of F-gases control for the EU-27 and for the year 2020 is derived. It seems that it is more cost-effective to start abating SF6 first, and then moving to PFCs and then applying control methods to HFCs