Methodology for inventorying greenhouse gas emissions from global cities

Christopher Kennedy, Julia Steinberger, Barrie Gasson, Yvonne Hansen, Timothy Hillman, Miroslav Havranek, Diane Pataki, Aumnad Phdungsilp, Anu Ramaswami, Gara Villalba Mendez

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

341 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper describes the methodology and data used to determine greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions attributable to ten cities or city-regions: Los Angeles County, Denver City and County, Greater Toronto, New York City, Greater London, Geneva Canton, Greater Prague, Barcelona, Cape Town and Bangkok. Equations for determining emissions are developed for contributions from: electricity; heating and industrial fuels; ground transportation fuels; air and marine fuels; industrial processes; and waste. Gasoline consumption is estimated using three approaches: from local fuel sales; by scaling from regional fuel sales; and from counts of vehicle kilometres travelled. A simplified version of an intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) method for estimating the GHG emissions from landfill waste is applied. Three measures of overall emissions are suggested: (i) actual emissions within the boundary of the city; (ii) single process emissions (from a life-cycle perspective) associated with the city's metabolism; and (iii) life-cycle emissions associated with the city's metabolism. The results and analysis of the study will be published in a second paper.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)4828-4837
Number of pages10
JournalEnergy Policy
Volume38
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Energy
  • Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

Keywords

  • Climate change
  • Life-cycle analysis
  • Urban metabolism

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