Validating CDIAC`s population-based approach to the disaggregation of within-country CO{sub 2} emissions

The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center produces and distributes a data base of CO{sub 2} emissions from fossil-fuel combustion and cement production, expressed as global, regional, and national estimates. CDIAC also produces a companion data base, expressed on a one-degree latitude-longitude grid. To do this gridding, emissions within each country are spatially disaggregated according to the distribution of population within that country. Previously, the lack of within-country emissions data prevented a validation of this approach. But emissions inventories are now becoming available for most US states. An analysis of these inventories confirms that population distribution explains most, but not all, of the variance in the distribution of CO{sub 2} emissions within the US. Additional sources of variance (coal production, non-carbon energy sources, and interstate electricity transfers) are explored, with the hope that the spatial disaggregation of emissions can be improved