ACC Carbon Tool

Introduction

The first stage in using the ACC carbon tool is to specify your scenarios — the carbon flows that the tool will visualise. A scenario consists of an emitter group — a collection of carbon sources — together with details of how emissions will change over the visualisation period, and a carbon pricing. Scenarios are specified on either the Scenario specifications page, which is used for emitter groups that have been defined individually, or the NGFS Scenario specifications page, which gives you access to pre-defined emitter groups derived from NGFS scenarios.

Further details

When you run the visualisation, the ACC carbon tool will simulate carbon emissions based on the emitter group or groups and scenarios you have specified. Depending on the parameters you specified, the analysis will include

Summary
A summary table of means, medians and percentile values
Emissions by year
A chart showing emissions in each year
Emissions in selected year
A chart showing the distribution of simulated emissions in the selected year
Limits
An analysis of whether the simulated emissions comply with the specified limits

When viewing the results, you can select which year to focus on, the percentiles to show, whether to show annual or cumulative emissions, and specify limits that should be complied with.

Further details

Do you want to...

Visualise NGFS scenarios

Head to the NGFS Scenario specifications page, which gives you access to pre-defined emitter groups derived from NGFS scenarios.

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Drill down into detail

Use a component analysis to treat the sources in an emitter group as components of a single overall emitter. When viewing the results, you can choose whether to see the total emissions from all sources or the emissions from a single source.

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Analyse a multi-option project

Define an emitter suite for the project. The ACC carbon tool will construct an emitter group for each option, and one for the overall project. Use a component analysis to drill down into the detail of individual options or to compare two options, and a collection analysis to get a big picture view of all the options.

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Compare emissions under two scenarios

Use a component analysis with the same emitter group (or NGFS scenario options) in both scenarios, but with different emissions changes.

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Define your own emitter group or groups

You can define your own emitter groups or a suite of emitter groups by uploading a file containing their definitions. You do this on the Emitter group page.

You can't edit or delete emitter groups directly, but can upload revised definitions or a special file that will delete the specified group or suite.

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Investigate a disorderly transition

You can use the emissions changes parameters to investigate the effect of different types of transition to a low carbon economy.

A trend represents a general increase or decrease in carbon emissions over the long term, by changing either or both of the level and spread of all emissions. For an orderly transition, you might choose a reduction in level with an increase in spread.

A shock represents one off phased change in carbon emissions over a defined period, by changing either or both of the level and spread of all emissions. For a disorderly transition, you might choose a shock lasting say five years, with a reduction in level of 20% and a significant increase in spread, followed by a more gradual trend.

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