Global Climate Community releases city-scale emissions accounting standard for public comment

March 20, 2012

ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group released today a draft edition of the Global Protocol for Community-scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions (community protocol) to help cities around the world measure and report GHG emissions using a more consistent protocol.

From today until 20 April, we invite public comments on the draft GPC to ensure that these standards fit the needs of those implementing them.

"With the protocol, local climate action is entering a new phase of globally harmonized GHG accounting and reporting. Cities will continue leading the way towards building low-carbon and sustainable communities worldwide." said Konrad Otto-Zimmerman, Secretary General of ICLEI.

The community protocol complements ICLEI's programmes and tools on local climate action that are being implemented globally, in particular, the 2009 International Local Government GHG Emissions Analysis Protocol (IEAP) and its national supplements.

ICLEI will also work with its partners to reflect provisons of the community protocol in greenhouse gas performance section of the carbonn Cities Climate Registry (cCCR). As of February 2012, the cCCR compiles more than 1 GtCO2/yr of community GHG emissions reported by over 160 cities worldwide.

This new collaboratively developed community protocol establishes a single minimum standard for accounting and reporting community‐scale GHG emissions that can be used across multiple platforms (the 2012 Standard).

By simplifying the process and making it more broadly accessible, this common approach will help local governments accelerate their emission-reduction activities, while also meeting the needs of climate financing, national monitoring and reporting requirements. The community protocol integrates seamlessly with national and corporate GHG accounting methodologies, facilitating linkages between these entities for improved coordination to reduce GHG emissions.

“C40 operates under the premise that cities must measure emissions in order to manage them; with this unprecedented and collaborative initiative, we are empowering all cities to do both,” says Jay Carson, CEO of C40.

The community protocol has three main components:

guiding principles and a policy framework to link the efforts across local and national governments and the private sector;
the 2012 Accounting and Reporting Standard with supplemental guidance on methodologies, and reporting templates;
and, finally, a roadmap for institutionalizing the process for updating the Standard on an ongoing basis.

Its release today marks a major milestone in the year-long partnership between ICLEI and C40 on this effort, which includes collaboration with the World Bank, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), United Nations Environment Programme, UN-Habitat and the World Resources Institute (WRI).

ICLEI and C40 have represented the interests of their member cities during the community protocol development, while our partners have also engaged cities for insights on needs and challenges gained through their own experiences. In the next phase, a small group of cities will pilot the 2012 Standard to test its application across a range of scenarios.

As we enter into the public comment period, ICLEI and C40 encourage all cities to provide input on the community protocol and register for upcoming explanatory webinars.

The full document and accompanying fact sheet are now available for review. Comments on the full document should be submitted through the feedback form template. The deadline for feedback is 20 April 2012. Feedback should be sent directly to GPC@iclei.org

Watch and listen to the webinar from 3 April, facilitated by Yunus Arikan, ICLEI World Secretariat

Watch and listen to the webinar from 4 April, facilitated by Rishi Desai, C40 Climate Leadership Group

To register or for receive further details on these upcoming events please contact GPC@iclei.org

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