Response of Natural Gas Consumption to Temperature and Projection under SSP Scenarios during Winter in Beijing

Abstract

The present study investigates the response of natural gas consumption to temperature on the basis of observations during heating season (middle November–middle March) for the period 2002–2021 in Beijing, China, and then estimates temperature-related changes in the gas consumption under future scenarios by using climate model simulations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6. Observational evidence suggests that the daily natural gas consumption normalized by gross domestic product is linearly correlated with the daily average temperature during heating season in the past two decades in Beijing. Hence, a linear regression model is built to estimate temperature-related changes in the natural gas consumption under future scenarios. Corresponding to a rising trend in the temperature, the natural gas consumption shows a decrease trend during 2015–2100 under both the SSP245 and the SSP585 scenarios. In particular, the temperature would increase rapidly from early 2040s to the end of 21st century under the SSP585 scenario, leading to an obvious reduction in the natural gas consumption for heating in Beijing. Relative to that in the present day (1995–2014), the natural gas consumption would show a reduction of approximately 9% (±4%) at the end of 21st century (2091–2100) under the SSP245 scenario and approximately 22% (±7%) under the SSP585 scenario.