Global emission trends of anthropogenic full-volatility-range organic compounds 1970-2020

Abstract Full-volatility-range organic compounds (FVOC), including low-volatility, semi-volatile, intermediate-volatility, and non-methane volatile organic compounds (L/S/IVOC and NMVOC), are key components influencing atmospheric chemistry and climate. Accurate estimates of their emissions are crucial for modeling air quality and understanding aerosol budgets. However, the long-term trends of global FVOC emissions remain unquantified. Here, we develop a volatility-bin-resolved global anthropogenic FVOC emission inventory for 1970–2020 under the Multi-resolution Emission Inventory model for Climate and air pollution research (MEIC) framework (MEIC-global-FVOC), integrating measured gas- and particle-phase emission factors. The MEIC-global-FVOC emission inventory fills the gaps in current inventories by capturing IVOC emissions and likely accounting for part of the evaporative fraction of L/SVOC emissions, leading to 28%-41% higher estimates for global organic compound emissions than current inventories. Global FVOC emissions increase from 106.1 Mt to 165.0 Mt during 1970–2020, with higher growth rates of L/SVOC (9.7% per decade) and IVOC (11.5% per decade) than that of NMVOC (8.4% per decade), mainly driven by increased activities in scattered sources such as residential biofuel combustion and volatile chemical products (VCPs) use. Global L/S/IVOC emissions increase from 35.0 Mt to 58.4 Mt during 1970–2020. Regionally, L/S/IVOC emissions increase rapidly in developing regions due to rising biofuel combustion, whereas emissions in developed regions decrease or remain stable under the offsetting effects of improved PM controls, coal phase-out, sustained rural biofuel use, and increased VCPs demand. Despite notable uncertainties, the MEIC-global-FVOC emission inventory provides more complete estimates of global organic compound emissions and a new dataset for advancing chemical transport modeling and understanding air pollution sources.