Why does the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change give coal or wood up to thirty times more methane in one sector table than in another?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2006 methane (CH4) default for a fuel depends on the sector table. Coal is 10 kilograms per terajoule (TJ) in manufacturing and in commercial buildings but 300 in homes and farms. Wood is 30 in manufacturing and 300 in the other two tables.

Kilograms of CH4 per TJ, by table

• Other bituminous coal: manufacturing 10, commercial and institutional 10, residential and agriculture 300.
• Wood and wood waste: 30, 300, 300.
• Gas or diesel oil: 3, 10, 10.
• Natural gas: 1, 5, 5. Liquefied petroleum gas: 1, 5, 5.
• Charcoal: 200 in all three.

Nitrous oxide barely moves

Nitrous oxide (N2O) stays almost flat across the three tables, in kilograms per TJ: coal 1.5, wood 4, natural gas 0.1, gas or diesel oil 0.6, in each table. Only charcoal changes, from 4 in manufacturing to 1 in the other two. The carbon dioxide (CO2) factor is the same in all three tables.

Which table is yours

The tables follow the sector where the fuel is burnt. In the guide's sector list, manufacturing includes textile and leather and wood products. Commercial and institutional means fuel burnt in commercial and institutional buildings. The agriculture group covers pumps, grain drying, horticultural greenhouses and similar fixed equipment on farms and in forestry and fishing, and shares a table with homes.

Power or heat a firm makes for its own use goes to the sector where it was made. Our reading is that a boiler in a textile plant therefore uses the manufacturing column.

How much it matters

Manufacturing and commercial buildings share the coal methane factor of 10. Moving the same coal to the homes and farms table (300) adds about 9 percent to the CO2 total in the example below, from methane alone. For wood, whose own CO2 is reported separately from Scope 1, methane and nitrous oxide are what stay in Scope 1, so the table choice matters far more.

10 TJ of fuel burnt, methane at each table (example quantities)

• Coal CO2: 10 x 94,600 = 946,000 kilograms, or 946 tonnes
• Coal CH4, manufacturing: 10 x 10 = 100 kilograms. Homes and farms: 10 x 300 = 3,000 kilograms
• At an example global warming potential of 28: 2.8 tonnes of CO2 equivalent against 84 tonnes
• Wood CH4, manufacturing: 10 x 30 = 300 kilograms, or 8.4 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Other tables: 10 x 300 = 3,000 kilograms, or 84 tonnes

The 10 TJ and the factor of 28 are example numbers. Use the global warming potentials your report names.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so the coal, wood and gas bought are on file each month. Which sector your burner belongs to is something you decide and write down.

• Free calculators
• Biomass boiler methane and nitrous oxide
• Charcoal furnace methane
• Fluidised bed coal boiler nitrous oxide

Sources: IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 chapter 2: Stationary Combustion (Tables 2.1 and 2.3 to 2.5)

Last reviewed 2026-11-04. Factors are from the 2006 IPCC Guidelines, Tier 1 defaults on a net calorific basis. Confirm the sector your activity falls into with your verifier.