Greenhouse gas pollution based on energy use and its mitigation potential in the city of Surakarta, Indonesia

Considered as a trigger of climate change, greenhouse gas (GHG) is a global environmental issue. The City of Surakarta in Indonesia consists mainly of urban areas with high intensities of anthropogenic fossil energy consumption and, potentially, GHG emission. It is topographically a basin area and most likely prompts a Thermal Inversion, creating a risk of accumulation and entrapment of air pollutants or GHGs at low altitudes. Vegetation has been reported to mitigate the rate of increase in emissions because it acts as a natural carbon sink. This study aimed to mitigate the GHG emissions from energy consumption in Surakarta and formulate recommendations for control. It commenced with calculating the emission factors based on the IPCC formula and determining the key categories using the Level Assessment approach. It also involved computing the vegetation density according to the NDVI values of the interpretation of Sentinel 2A imagery. The estimation results showed that in 2018, the emission loads from the energy consumption in Surakarta reached 1,217,385.05 (tons of CO2e). The key categories of these emissions were electricity consumption, transportation on highways, and the domestic sector, with transportation on highways being the top priority. These loads have exceeded the local carrying capacity because they create an imbalance between emission and natural GHG sequestration by vegetations. © 2020 Faculty of Geography UGM and The Indonesian Geographers Association