Developing a high-level greenhouse gas emissions inventorying protocol for local government climate action management: Chico, CA - a case study

Over the past 10-12 years thousands of cities and counties across the United States have developed local Climate Action Plans to mitigate some degree of greenhouse gas emissions generated within their jurisdictions; hundreds of these cities are located in the state of California. The process of developing a Climate Action Plan usually involves the completion of a greenhouse gas emissions inventory in order to establish a baseline estimate of greenhouse gas emissions generated by those activities the local government plans to begin tracking and managing. Climate Action Plans generally have 10, 20 or 30-year horizons and a series of interim targets tiered off of an ultimate reduction target. Tracking progress of implementation over time requires regular accounting of emissions generated by activities within the plan’s scope. Completing city- or county-wide greenhouse gas emissions inventories can be a time- and resource-consumptive process, one that the planning departments often tasked with managing implementation aren’t necessarily equipped to conduct on an annual or biennial basis. This project aims to develop a high-level community-wide greenhouse gas emissions inventorying protocol that can be utilized by these agencies and their staff on a regular basis to track progress on and guide resource allocation in Climate Action Plan implementation. The protocol focuses on the largest emissions generating activities within a jurisdiction, tracking data related to these activities at a high-level of aggregation. The protocol was developed to produce results that are relevant, accurate, complete, measurable, consistent and transparent. As a case study, the project quantifies an estimate of 11 years’ worth of community-wide greenhouse gas emissions for the City of Chico, CA. The City of Chico was an early signatory to the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement in 2006 and adopted a community-wide Climate Action Plan in 2012.