Greenhouse gas accounting for municipalities

A spreadsheet now records the island’s emissions of methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide. The spreadsheet holds the numbers and calculations, and it produces greenhouse gas accounts in terms of carbon dioxide equivalents. The spreadsheet immediately shows the effect of manipulating the causes of emissions. With this knowledge, a municipal planner forms an action plan to reduce the emissions. The action plan aims for the targets of the UN’ climate conference in Paris in 2015.
Usually, governments report greenhouse gas emissions to the UN in a national inventory report. However, municipal accounting requires more detail. For example, the spreadsheet knows the number of cows on the Samso island, and the planner can predict the reduction in the island’s emissions if consumers reduce their beef consumption.
The municipal planning department is the main user of the accounting tool. Other stakeholders include the Samso Energy Academy and the engineers who designed the tool (PlanEnergi). The climate action plan depends on the tool, and the action plan enables the local politicians to agree on a climate policy.
All 19 municipalities in the Central Denmark Region now has the same tool. The accounting principles are the same; therefore the region aggregates all the municipal accounts into a regional report.
The accounting principles follow rules set by the UN, the Covenant of Mayors, and the Cities Climate Leadership Group C40. That enables data exchange and aggregation.