How is an emissions inventory developed?

16 September 2024

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NEED A RECAP? Revisit “What is a Baseline Emissions Inventory?” from Lesson 2.2.

This lesson focuses on the development of a BEI, or first emissions inventory. However, the BEI principles are generally applicable to all subsequent emissions inventories.
This flexible approach can be adapted to the specific situation of local authorities (city size, level of expertise, political mandate, budget, etc.) and a simple inventory can be produced and refined in later iterations.

How do you align an emissions inventory with international standards?

Methodological alignment and standards

When compiling an emissions inventory, it is important to use a common and consistent methodological approach.
This ensures that the results can be:

Understood
Verified by external parties
Easily reproduced or updated in the future

An example of such an approach is the Global Protocol for Community-scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories (GPC).

The Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories

It is good practice to compile a BEI in alignment with the Global Protocol for Community-scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories: An Accounting and Reporting Standard for Cities (referred to as the GPC).

The GPC is a globally-used international standard for GHG inventories in cities and other sub-national regions.

Published in 2015, the GPC was co-developed by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, and the World Resources Institute (WRI).

It aims to offer a robust and comprehensive GHG emissions inventory method that allows for more accurate benchmarking and comparisons between subnational entities such as regions, counties, cities and municipalities.

The GPC also offers guidance on setting goals and tracking emissions over time. The protocol follows international best practices, including those in the GHG Protocol Mitigation Goals Standard, in elaborating how regions or cities can set different types of GHG reduction goals and measure progress consistently as better data and methodologies are adopted.

STICKY NOTE

CoM SSA Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plan (SEACAP) course

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