WM – Page 12 – GHG Accounting

Copenhagen to become first Carbon Neutral Capital by 2025

On August 23, 2012 an overwhelming majority of the Copenhagen City Council adopted an ambitious climate plan for the city. The plan, entitled CPH 2025, builds on a 2009 climate plan in which the city set out to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions to 20 percent of 2005 levels by 2015 and to become carbon neutral by 2025, making it the first national capital to do so. Copenhagen already met the first target in 2011, four years ahead of schedule, despite the fact that the city’s population grew by ten percent over the same period.

CPH 2025 mirrors the climate plan set out by the Danish government to vastly reduce the country’s carbon footprint and end its reliance on fossil fuels for energy production by 2035. The city released approximately 1.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2011, a figure that would drop to 1.16 tons a year in 2025 if no new initiatives were introduced. Extensive retrofitting of buildings, reorganisation of the energy supply and changes in transport habits are some of many initiatives the City of Copenhagen will implement in order to achieve its carbon neutral goal. Some of the key targets include:

Energy consumption:

20% reduction of heat consumption.
20% reduction of commercial and 10% reduction of residential electricity consumption.
Installation of photovoltaic cells to generate 1% of 2025 Copenhagen’s electricity.

Energy production:

Carbon neutral district heating.
Electricity produced by wind and biomass will exceed the total energy consumption of Copenhagen.
Separation of commercial and residential plastic waste.
Bio-gasification of organic waste.

Transportation:

75% of overall trips in Copenhagen will be on foot, bike or public transport.
50% of school or work commuting trips will be by bike.
20% increase in public transport passengers.
Carbon neutral public transport.
20-30% of light vehicles will use renewable energy like biogas or hydrogen.
30-40% of heavy vehicles will use renewable energy.

City administration:

40% reduction of energy consumption in municipal buildings.
New municipal constructions till 2015 will meet the requirements of the 2015 classification.
New municipal constructions till 2020 will meet the requirements of the 2020 classification.
City of Copenhagen vehicles will run on electricity, hydrogen or bio-fuels
50% reduction of street lighting energy consumption.
60,000 square meters of solar panelling will be installed on municipal buildings.

CPH 2025 offers a holistic vision for the city that reduces carbon dioxide emissions by transitioning energy production away from coal and toward biomass, wind and solar energy, while also reducing energy consumption and improving energy efficiency in transport, housing, heating and industry. The plan will cost the city about 2.7 billion kroner before 2025, although additional private investments of between 20 and 25 billion kroner will be needed from the private sector in order for the city to meet its targets.

New Climate and Clean Air Coalition Moves to Reduce High-Potency GHGs

On April 24, 2012, a new international coalition – the 13-member Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) – approved its first initiatives to reduce emissions of highly potent greenhouse gases including methane, black carbon and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The decision came at the CCAC’s first meeting, held in Stockholm on the sidelines of a larger ministerial meeting on sustainable development. Starting with seven members in February (US, Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Mexico, Sweden and the UN Environment Program), CCAC recently added six new participants (Colombia, Japan, Nigeria, Norway, the European Commission and the World Bank). Australia, Korea, UK, Finland and Denmark attended the first CCAC meeting as observers.

On methane, CCAC members agreed to look for ways to work with the oil and gas industry to reduce emissions from leaks, venting and flaring, and to work with cities to reduce landfill methane emissions. The members also agreed to reduce black carbon, or soot, emissions from diesel engines which are the leading source of global black carbon emissions. The CCAC will also seek to cut emissions from inefficient old brick kilns, which are a major source of soot in developing nations. For HFCs, the coalition will look to fund efforts to accelerate deployment of more environmentally friendly alternatives.

While such programs may be relatively small compared with broader efforts to cut global GHG emissions, they could have a significant effect as the targeted GHGs account for about 30% of current climate impacts.

Norway and Sweden today each agreed to contribute $1.5 million to the coalition’s efforts, bringing total initial funding to $16.7 million. The US is the largest source of funding, providing $12.5 million over two years.

Climate Action Reserve Board Adopts Nitrous Oxide Reduction Methodology for Synthetic Nitrogen Fertilizer Management

The Climate Action Reserve (CAR) has developed a Nitrogen Management Project Protocol (NMPP) for the agricultural sector to provide guidance on how to quantify, monitor and verify greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions from improving nitrogen use efficiency in crop production. The protocol was adopted by CAR in June 2012. It is available online.
Within the same field, scientists at the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) are putting the finishing touches on a program called the nitrous oxide greenhouse gas reduction methodology. This program, which is being conducted in partnership with the Electric Power Research Institute, would pay farmers to apply less nitrogen fertilizer in a way that doesn’t jeopardize yields. When farmers reduce their nitrogen fertilizer use, they can use the methodology as a means of generating carbon credits. These credits can then be traded in carbon markets for financial payments. The methodology was recently approved by the American Carbon Registry and is in its final stages of validation by the Verified Carbon Standard.

In the United States, agriculture accounts for almost 70 percent of all nitrous oxide emissions linked with human activity. Nitrous oxide is one of the major gases contributing to human-induced climate change and has a lifetime in the atmosphere of more than 100 years. In addition, a molecule of nitrous oxide has more than 300 times the heat-trapping effect in the atmosphere as a molecule of carbon dioxide.

To achieve desired production levels of crops such as corn, most farmers apply synthetic nitrogen fertilizer to their fields every year. While the production of nitrous oxide through microbial activity is a natural process in soils, the large-scale application of fertilizer has greatly increased the amount of nitrous oxide in soils. Once nitrogen fertilizer hits the ground, it is hard to contain and is easily lost to groundwater, rivers, oceans and the atmosphere. Nitrogen lost to the environment from agricultural fields is nitrogen not used by crops, which costs farmers money and degrades water and air quality. Farmers already manage fertilizer to avoid large losses, but to reduce losses further it currently costs more money than the fertilizer saves.

Carbon credits provide an incentive for farmers to apply fertilizer more precisely, rather than to reduce yields. In addition to providing an economic incentive, the methodology is a tool that farmers can apply to enhance their land stewardship.

EC Launches Sustainable Urban Mobility Campaign to Fight Congestion and Pollution

The European Commission (EC) has launched its Sustainable Urban Mobility campaign, which represents a three-year initiative designed to support sustainable urban mobility campaigners in 31 countries. The central objective of the Sustainable Urban Mobility campaign is to promote the advantages of combining different modes of transportation, so its slogan invites people to “Do the Right Mix”. Activities began with the opening of a registration system to support outstanding actions that foster positive change in attitudes and behaviour. This campaign is linked to the European Mobility Week, which runs from September 16 to 22 every year and culminates in the “In Town Without My Car!” day.

A fund of EUR 500,000 is available to support actions demonstrating significant networking and multiplication effects at the local, regional and/or national, or even EU level. Individuals, non-commercial entities (schools, NGOs, public administrations, etc.) and commercial entities are eligible to apply for up to EUR 7,000 in financial support from the EC by participating in the campaign. Applicants may register their actions promoting sustainable urban mobility at http://www.dotherightmix.eu.

In addition, the campaign includes initiatives such as an award for European cities based on their sustainable urban mobility plans, coordinated awareness-raising activities and events in 31 participating countries: EU Member States, EEA Member States (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) and Croatia. The campaign is managed by the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport and funded through the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme – the EU’s support programme for non-technological actions in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.

Québec introduces 2012-2020 Climate Change Action Plan with 63% of Funds Targeted at Transportation

On June 3, 2012, Québec introduced its 2012-2020 Climate Change Action Plan and the accompanying Government Strategy for Climate Change Adaptation. Under the new action plan and strategy, nearly $2.7 billion will be invested towards the government’s climate change goals. Revenues to implement the plan, which is intended to be self-funded, are expected to come from the carbon market as well as charges on fossil fuels and combustibles which have been extended until 2014.

As the transport industry is estimated to account for 43% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Québec, two-thirds of revenues from the action plan will fund transportation measures such as public and alternative transit, as well as inter-modality and energy efficiency in freight transport. The plan also allocates $200 million to support efforts by businesses to reduce GHG emissions through initiatives such as investing in projects related to energy efficiency, process optimization and the installation of environmentally friendly equipment. In addition, $40 million will be dedicated to support the development and marketing of new technologies.

These initiatives constitute the first phase of the 2013-2020 action plan. The second phase of the plan will be launched at the mid-point of the plan and will take into consideration the revenue generated by the carbon market and the new policy directions adopted with respect to sustainable mobility, land use planning and energy. The action plan will also evolve based on new developments in climate science, technologies and Québec’s progress in the attainment of its objectives.

Québec introduces amendments to draft GHG Regulations

To help Québec meet its emission reduction targets, the province introduced amendments to two draft GHG regulations in the June 8, 2012 edition of the Québec Official Gazette: (i) Regulation respecting mandatory reporting of certain emissions of contaminants into the atmosphere, and (ii) Regulation respecting a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emission allowances.

Amendments to the Regulation respecting a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emission allowances are intended to link the Quebec system with the California system as well as those of future partners such as Ontario and British Columbia. To this end, it specifies system registration admissibility conditions and necessary documents, as well as the procedure regulating emission rights trading and auctions, and provides the conditions for the delivery of offset credits, including protocols regarding certain admissible projects. Finally, amendments were made to adjust the regulation further to the adoption of Bill 89, An Act to amend the Environment Quality Act in order to reinforce compliance, by providing for administrative penalties and stronger sanctions.

The Regulation respecting mandatory reporting of certain emissions of contaminants into the atmosphere was also amended in order to complete the necessary harmonization with Western Climate Initiative (WCI) rules by adding declaration protocols. It provides, among other things, that the obligation to audit GHG emission declarations only applies to emitters subject to the GHG cap-and-trade system. In Québec, 2012 is a transition year during which regulated entities will have an opportunity to become familiar with the cap-and-trade system. The first carbon market compliance period will begin on January 1, 2013.

Legal Challenges Unlikely to Delay 2013 Start of California’s Cap-and-Trade Program

According to a panel of legal experts, it is unlikely that recent legal challenges to California’s cap-and-trade program will delay the start of compliance with the system on January 1, 2013. Speaking at the Navigating the American Carbon World conference in San Francisco on April 12, 2012, lawyers said that state regulators have done a good job in designing a system that can withstand legal challenges from regulated industries including the oil, gas and power sectors.

“Even if lawsuits are filed, I don’t think we’re going to see anything between now and the end of 2012 that will actually delay it,” said Tim O’Connor, a lawyer with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). He added that: “There might be lawsuits that are continuing, but nothing that will actually derail it at December 31, 2012,” when compliance with the program begins. Other panel members agreed that it was difficult to envision a scenario where a lawsuit would knock the program completely off course.

The majority of the lawsuits filed so far against the California Air Resources Board (ARB), the state agency that designed and is implementing the program, have come from environmental groups, not industry.

A lawsuit by an environmental justice group known as the Association of Irritated Residents (AIR) last year contributed to the ARB’s decision to delay compliance with the program until 2013.

In March 2012, two employees at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), acting as private citizens, filed a lawsuit claiming the ARB overstepped its authority when it said offset credits could count for compliance with the system. State officials and independent legal experts at the conference said they were confident the state would prevail in that case.

One reason lawsuits from industry have yet to materialize may be because the state has designed a system that stands on firm legal ground, EDF’s O’Connor said: “I would hope that the reason we haven’t seen a lot of legal challenges so far is because there are a lot of options that have been taken off the table because of smart design and design that is in compliance with the law”.

(Sources include: Thomson Reuters Point Carbon)

BC Announces New Funding for Public Sector Carbon Neutral Commitments

On April 5, 2011, Environment Minister Terry Lake announced a new $5 million capital program that will be available to school districts for energy-efficiency projects to lower their carbon emissions. The provincial government indicated that this funding reaffirms its commitment to being the first carbon-neutral government in North America.

Starting in 2012/13, the new K-12 energy-efficiency capital program will be available to boards of education through the Ministry of Education. The amount of available funding has been set to be equal to or greater than the total paid by school boards each year for purchases of carbon offsets from the Pacific Carbon Trust (PCT).

In addition to the new funding, the following program enhancements for all public sector organizations were announced:

SMARTTool administration costs will no longer be charged to public sector organizations, resulting in $850,000 of cost savings that will be absorbed by the PCT.
To ensure the PCT’s offset portfolio meets the needs of stakeholders, the PCT will create an advisory panel. The panel will play an ongoing role in reviewing the structure and diversity of the carbon offset portfolio and provide suggestions regarding future offset opportunities. The panel will include representatives from the private and public sectors that purchase offsets from PCT, as well as select carbon-industry experts.
To streamline the current system, a link will be established that will feed energy data directly into the SMARTTool to reduce administrative costs associated with measuring emissions.

Under BC’s Carbon Neutral Regulation of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act, certain public sector organizations were required to be carbon neutral by 2010. In June 2011, it was announced that BC had become the first major jurisdiction in North America to achieve carbon neutral operations as of 2010. This means that BC’s public sector including schools, post-secondary institutions, government offices, Crown corporations and hospitals have all achieved net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Global Protocol for Community-scale GHG Emissions released for Public Comment

On March 20, 2012, the ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group released a draft edition of the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GPC) to help cities around the world measure and report GHG emissions using a consistent protocol. Public comments on the draft GPC may be submitted until April 20, 2012 and a final version will be released on May 15 at the United Nations climate talks in Bonn. The design of the GPC is specified within the scope of the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed between ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group on 1 June 2011 in Sao Paulo.

The GPC is the result of a year-long collaboration between ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group; in June 2011, the two organizations forged an agreement to develop a standard approach for accounting and reporting GHG emissions that will boost the ability of cities to access funding and implement actions. Other organizations that participated in the development of GPC include the World Bank Group, United Nations-HABITAT, United Nations Environment Program, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the World Resources Institute. This new collaboratively developed community protocol establishes a single minimum standard for accounting and reporting community scale greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that can be used across multiple platforms. The GPC complements ICLEI’s programs 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.

The GPC 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
a roadmap for institutionalizing the process for updating the Standard on an ongoing basis.

Background

To manage emissions in an effective and transparent way, cities must measure and publicly report them. Planning for climate action at the city level starts with developing a GHG inventory, which allows local policy makers and residents to understand which sectors drive GHG emissions in their city or community, and respond by developing action plans that address those sectors. To date, a consistent accounting and reporting guidance for cities on how to conduct community scale inventories has been lacking. Rather, competing guidance has resulted in a proliferation of protocols and inventories that cannot be easily communicated between financing institutions, local and national governments, and the private sector. The absence of a common approach prevents comparison between cities and across time, and reduces the ability of cities to demonstrate the global impact of collective local actions.

Harmonization of GHG accounting methodologies presents local governments with opportunities for credible reporting of climate data in a transparent, verifiable, consistent, and locally relevant way. An internationally recognized GHG accounting standard which harmonizes prevailing methodologies can help local governments to set targets, measure progress, and leverage national and international financing. The community protocol integrates seamlessly with national and corporate GHG accounting methodologies, facilitating linkages between these entities for improved coordination to reduce GHG emissions. ICLEI is also working with its partners to reflect provisions of the GPC in the GHG performance section of the carbon Cities Climate Registry (cCCR). As of February 2012, the cCCR had compiled more than 1 GtCO2/yr of community GHG emissions reported by over 160 cities worldwide.

The GPC builds upon the principles, knowledge, experiences, and practices defined in previously published city-led inventories, institutional standards, and organizational protocols. These include the International Local Government GHG Emissions Analysis Protocol (ICLEI), Draft International Standard for Determining Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Cities (UNEP/UN-HABITAT/WB), GHG Protocol Standards (WRI/WBCSD), Baseline Emissions Inventory/Monitoring Emissions Inventory methodology (EC-CoM JRC), and Local Government Operations Protocol (ICLEI-USA).

Within the context of the GPC, several challenges have been identified in efforts to account for community-scale emissions:

Developing a community-scale GHG accounting and reporting standard that attributes emissions to the activities of the community.
Harmonizing existing community-based GHG accounting methodologies and standardizing accounting, reporting, and the relationships of community-scale inventories with national, organizational, and global climate efforts.
Advancements in GHG accounting methodologies at the community-scale are continuously evolving. An open, global protocol must therefore include a process for revising the standard to meet the inevitable improvements of tomorrow.

To address these challenges, the GPC provides a template to analyze the relationship with national and organizational GHG accounting methodologies, allocating all community activities and services that may result in GHG emissions, including inter-city emissions, to categories defined by the 2006 IPCC Guidelines and by Scope definition, to reflect varying levels of control by the community over these emissions. In addition, the GPC introduces a community-scale GHG accounting standard – referred to as the 2012 Accounting and Reporting Standard – which harmonizes GHG accounting methodologies and provides step-by-step guidance for cities on how to collect relevant data, quantify emissions, and report results using a series of summary reporting templates. Data collection for reporting is guided through use of data collection tables, providing transparency in activity data, emissions factors, and data sources. The 2012 Accounting and Reporting Standard enhances local policy development by: (i) benchmarking emissions between cities to facilitate peer-to-peer networking and sharing of best practices; (ii) allowing for consistent measurement of a community’s GHG emissions over time to evaluate various GHG abatement efforts; and (iii) facilitating climate-linked finance.

The GPC and associated processes are guided by six principles:

Measurability. Data required to perform complete emissions inventories should be available; where necessary partners will work with communities to develop local capacity communities to enable for data development and collection for compliance with the 2012 Accounting Standard.
Accuracy. The calculation of GHG emissions should not systematically overstate or understate actual GHG emissions.
Relevance. The reported GHG emissions should reflect emissions occurring as a result of activities and consumption from within the community’s geopolitical boundaries.
Completeness. All significant emissions sources included should be accounted for.
Consistency. Emissions calculations should be consistent in approach.
Transparency. Activity data, sources, emissions factors and accounting methodologies should be documented and disclosed/

Comments on the full document should be submitted through the feedback form template. The deadline for feedback is April 20, 2012. Feedback should be sent directly to GPC@iclei.org.

European Commission Launches Consultation to address GHG emissions from ships

The European Commission has launched an online public consultation on possible measures to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships. All interested stakeholders can send their contributions until 12 April 2012.

The European Union (EU) has committed itself to reducing total GHG emissions by 2020 by at least 20% across all sectors. The 2008 legislation provides that the European Commission should make a proposal to include international maritime emissions in the EU reduction commitment if no international agreement was approved before the end of 2011 which included such emissions.

Despite significant efforts in the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), there has been only limited progress to date on the necessary technical, operational and market-based measures for new and existing ships. The European Commission will continue to support further efforts of these organizations for the development of global measures. The European Parliament and the Member States have therefore repeatedly called on the European Commission to take action if there is no international agreement.

International maritime transport emissions account for approximately 3% of global CO2 emissions and they are expected to more than double by 2050 if no additional action is taken. The introduction of measures to cut emissions will also reduce fuel consumption, thus bringing down transportation costs. Such action will also stimulate demand for low carbon maritime equipment and services.