Pollutants and non-GHG forcing agents - WITCH

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Model Documentation - WITCH

Corresponding documentation
Previous versions
Model information
Model link
Institution European Institute on Economics and the Environment (RFF-CMCC EIEE), Italy, http://www.eiee.org.
Solution concept General equilibrium (closed economy)
Solution method Optimization
Anticipation

The WITCH model represents the black carbon (BC), carbon monoxide (CO), ammoniac (NH3), nitrogen oxides (NOx), organic carbon (OC), sulfur dioxide (SO2), volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

The air quality module relates the pollution economic activities to emission levels of the most important air pollutants. It allows the assessment of air pollution emissions in baseline scenarios or under a climate or pollution regulation scenario. The implementation originates from the LIMITS project and its emission factors have been calculated from the GAINS model in the context of the EMF30 exercise. In the WITCH model we use information on both fuel use and the type of electricity generation technologies employed.

In WITCH we do not model all the activities that generate air pollution, therefore the non-energy-related pollution is accounted for exogenously. For this non-modelled sector the emissions are taken directly from available databases and mapped into the (SNAP sectors), which are generally sector categories for reporting air pollutant levels. The emissions of the exo-sectors (sectors that are related to energy but are not accounted in the model directly, see the table in appendix), from the EMF30 database. The non-energy sectors, such as solvents, waste (landfills, waste water, non-energy incineration), agriculture waste burning on fields, agriculture, Grassland burning and Forest burning and the ammonia emissions follow the RCP8.5 emissions from the RCP database.