Geography and Scale of Greenhouse Gas Degassing in Azerbaijan

The article considers the conditions and scale of degassing in the territory of Azerbaijan. The structure of greenhouse gas emissions and the dynamics of emissions of carbon dioxide CO2, methane CH4 and nitrogen oxide N2O generated from stationary sources are shown. The conducted studies allowed to determine the geography of greenhouse gas degassing and the volume of emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere by components. It is analyzed that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions generated by stationary sources in Azerbaijan are formed as a result of the production activities of a number of industries, such as mining; provision of electricity, gas and steam; air conditioning; manufacturing industries; water supply, cleaning of drains; construction industry; agriculture and forestry, transport, storage and communication, repair of vehicles and motorcycles and other activities. The share of enterprises in the fuel and energy complex that emit greenhouse gases and pollute the atmosphere is about 60%. Recent studies show that in the territory of Azerbaijan, along with anthropogenic degassing, an active role also belongs to the deep and crustal degassing of the Earth. At the stage of orogeny of mountain systems in the Greater and Lesser Caucasus, intense volcanic activity is noted, the fumarole stage of which today has led to the release of greenhouse gases—methane, carbon dioxide, etc. Deep degassing channels are associated with numerous tectonic faults in the Greater Caucasus. To monitor emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as a result of natural phenomena (degassing of the Earth) and anthropogenic activities, it is recommended to introduce a three-level system of monitoring, diagnosis and forecasting, including: space monitoring, monitoring of natural gas and oil manifestations on land and sea, monitoring using unmanned aerial vehicles; monitoring of the underground geological environment; geochemical research, gas concentration monitoring using laser absorption spectroscopy and technology of distributed sensor networks.