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In 2016, air pollutant emissions in the Republic of Korea were 795,044 metric tons (hereafter tons) of CO, 1,248,309 tons of NOx, 358,951 tons of SOx , 611,539 tons of TSP, 233,085 tons of PM10, 100,247 tons of PM2.5, 16,401 tons of BC, 1,024,029 tons of VOCs, and 301,301 tons of NH3. Including energy production, thirteen emission sources, which comprise the national air pollutant emission inventory, were classified by their characteristics into five sectors (Energy, Industry, Road, Non-road, and Everyday Activities and Other Emission Sources) to analyze their relative contributions to the national emissions. Specifically, their contributions by pollutant were as follows: NOx (11.0%), SOx (21.9%), PM2.5 (3.2%), VOCs (0.8%), NH3 (0.5%) from the energy sector; NOx (20.2%), SOx (59.7%), PM2.5 (42.1%), VOCs (24.3%), and NH3 (14.4%) from the industry sector; NOx (36.3%), SOx (0.1%), PM2.5 (9.7%), VOCs (4.6%), and NH3 (1.7%) from the road sector; NOx (24.8%), SOx (11.5%), PM2.5 (14.3%), VOCs (4.0%), and NH3 (0.04%) from the non-road sector; and NOx (7.6%), SOx (6.7%), PM2.5 (30.6%), VOCs (66.3%), and NH3 (83.4%) from the everyday activities and other emission sources sector. The data we calculate are used as official national emissions data for the establishment, implementation, and assessment of national atmospheric environment policy to improve air quality. As critical and necessary materials, the data are also utilized on a wide range of studies on policies such as customized regional particulate matter reduction measures. Thus, it is crucial to estimate highly reliable national emissions by enhancing the emissions factors and inventory and to establish a scientific emissions testing system by using air quality modeling and satellite data.

In 2015, air pollutant emissions in the Republic of Korea were 792,776 metric tons of CO, 1,157,728 metric tons of NOx, 352,292 metric tons of SOx, 604,243 metric tons of TSP, 233,177 metric tons of PM10, 98,806 tons of PM2.5, 15,934 metric tons of BC, 1,010,771 metric tons of VOCs, and 297,167 metric tons of NH3. Among major emission source categories, the main emission sources and the contributions to emissions, by pollutant, were as follows: road transport (31.0%), biomass burning (29.3%), and non-road transport (17.1%) for CO; road transport (31.9%), non-road transport (26.3%), and manufacturing industry (14.6%) for NOx; industrial processes (29.9%), energy production (25.9%), and manufacturing industry (24.2%) for SOx; fugitive dust (67.6%) manufacturing industry (20.1%) for TSP; fugitive dust (47.0%) and manufacturing industry (30.4%) for PM10; manufacturing industry (36.8%), fugitive dust (17.5%), and non-road transport (14.3%) for PM2.5; road transport (42.0%) and non-road transport (39.6%) for BC; solvent use (54.9%) and industrial processes (18.1%) for VOCs; and agriculture (77.8%) and industrial processes (13.3%) for NH3. The data we calculate can be used as official national emissions data for the establishment, implementation, and assessment of air quality-related policy, such as measures to deal with particulate matter, as well as for related modeling and other research.