Survey-based Atmospheric Emission Inventory for the Residential Sector: Santiago Island, Cabo Verde

Every year, 3.8 million premature deaths are registered due to household air pollution, with a great fraction occurring in developing countries due to the regular use of open fires and inefficient stoves. This study aims to develop a high-resolution residential atmospheric emission inventory and provide an up-to-date fuel consumption dataset to be used by developing countries. For that, Santiago Island (Cabo Verde) was selected as a case study and a survey-based approach was considered, due to the lack of data in this region. From the survey to main conclusions pop-out: i) no significant differences in residential fuel consumption in the analysed municipalities were observed; ii) the highest fuel consumption per capita was recorded for the firewood, followed by charcoal and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG); iii) the maximum household consumption share was estimated for LPG, followed by firewood and charcoal; and iv) charcoal and LPG registered higher cost per capita than firewood. Based on such data, it was concluded that the residential atmospheric emissions estimated by up-to-date global inventories are unlikely to be true values in the study area. The estimated inventory showed that the maximum emissions were recorded in May and the minimum values in February, with firewood being the main emission source. The weekly profiles presented higher residential emissions on weekends than on weekdays. Charcoal was mainly used on the weekends, while the weekend was estimated as the lowest contribution for both firewood and LPG. Fuel switching to LPG would result in a substantial reduction in residential emissions and, consequently, outdoor/indoor air quality and human health improvement. The developed dataset can be used to improve the spatial and temporal accuracy of the urban and large-scale residential atmospheric emissions in the developing countries.