ANNEX 1

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

 

This is a list of frequently asked questions about inventories and GHG emissions sources. Some questions just have a reference to a section of this manual, or other documents, and others are answered briefly below, with links to other sources as appropriate. We expect this list to grow and we welcome feedback and questions from users of this manual and the LAKs Inventory Tool.

 

Question 1: Does it matter which year we choose as our base year? Can we choose different base years for our Government Operations Inventory and our Community Emissions Analysis?

Answer 1: Developing baselines is essential for reporting progress on many environmental outcomes and it is essential if you want to measure results from activities designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

However it does not matter which year you choose as your baseline, and the quality of available data is the most important factor in the selection process.

We recommend that you consider carefully the following strategic issue before finalising your choice of base year. For recording the performance of actions already taken, you can only count those as GHG reduction achievements if you select a base year before these actions occurred. See more information in Sections 2.2 and 3.2 of the LAKs GHG Inventory Manual.

The year chosen for your Government Operations baseline and your Community Emissions Analysis baseline can be different years. However also note that the Covenant of Mayors only allows selection of a single base year.

 

Question 2: We have energy usage data for our buildings and facilities for one year, but the available data for our vehicle fleet is for the following year. Do we need to wait until we have all data for the same year before creating an inventory?”

Answer 2: Please start your inventory using the best data you have available now. Make sure that you record missing data or previous year data in the General Sector Notes for each particular worksheet.

Getting started with your first inventory is the most important thing. If you are aware that there is missing data, please include the name of the facility and, if possible, an estimated figure (maybe based on info from the following year?) and add a note in the data entry sheet about that specific entry. Please comment in your inventory report on recommend actions to solve this data problem for the next inventory. 

A small error may result from using data from another year, but this data is likely to be close to the base year data. For significant data changes to your base year, your baseline inventory can be (must be!) modified appropriately whenever you use the updated inventory results for reporting your activities. Remember the GHG accounting principles! Is it relevant, complete, consistent, transparent and accurate?

 

Question 3: The energy units used in the LAKs Inventory Tool were not the same as the energy units provided on our invoices. What can we do to change this?

Answer 3: While you needed to use an energy conversion calculator in an earlier version of this tool, Version 2 now allows you to select the appropriate units as you input data to the LAKs GHG Inventory Tool. But there is only one selection available for each sector – so you may need to use an energy unit conversion calculator if multiple units are used. Some conversions can be made using the conversion factors in the “eunits” worksheet in the LAKs Tool.

Solid energy forms like coal and coke may be invoiced by weight (tonnes or kg), and your energy supplier may provide an energy factor such as MJ/kg. These factors can also be adjusted in the tool. Sometimes the fuel description is important to provide you with the energy/weight factor e.g. “steam coal” but it is better to ask your supplier to confirm the average calorific value (MJ/kg).

Liquid fuels may be invoiced by volume (litres) or by weight (tones or kg) or by energy content (kWh, MWh, GWh, GJ, MJ etc). 

 

Question 4: How do we deal with complex local government organizational structures and shared ownership of facilities (e.g. landfills or small cogeneration plants) which produce GHG emissions?

Answer 4: Section 2.6.2 of the LAKs GHG Inventory Manual and Section 3.1.3 of the International Protocol contain a lot of information on this issue. The important thing to remember is that it is essential that you clearly document the “boundaries” that you use for your inventory, and particularly the reason for not including a particular facility in your inventory.

 

Question 5: What is the difference between direct and indirect emissions and which indirect emissions should we report?

Answer 5: Direct emissions are those that “you” cause by the burning of fossil fuels. These are described as Scope 1 direct emissions. 

Indirect emissions are those where someone else produces emissions in order to provide you with an energy form or a product that you want to use. The production of electricity and district heating or cooling services, by someone else (anywhere) are called Scope 2 indirect emissions.

Other indirect emissions are those caused by others (e.g. manufacturers or farmers) providing your municipality or community with the food, paper, concrete, building materials and products on which your city depends – these are Scope 3 indirect emissions, or “embedded emissions”. See the International Protocol for more information on these topics.

As a minimum, your Government Operations inventory must report on all your Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, but it should also include the municipality’s business travel and the community waste emissions (Scope 3). An inventory report should be prepared to describe what is included, and what is not included.

 

Question 6: Should we report leased facilities and operations?

Answer 6: See the explanation on ownership and control and boundaries in Section 2.6.2 of the LAKs GHG Inventory Manual and Section and the discussion on boundaries in Section 3.1.3 of the International Protocol. 

 

Make sure you include comment on what you decided to record (and not record) in your inventory report.

 

Question 7: Our direct emissions have changed because we have “out-sourced” many of the tasks that were previously carried out in-house. How do we account for these changes?

Answer 7: The results of any local government inventory must meet standards of general accountability and ensure the data is relevant, complete, consistent, transparent and accurate. You must adjust your emissions inventory baseline and document the changes that have occurred. It is particularly important that you do not claim or report, without comment on the reasons, a large drop in your Government Operations emissions purely because of out-sourcing of the emissions source and that you no longer have data on this aspect (such as an energy production plant was sold, or the rubbish collection is now done by a private contractor). See the LAKs GHG Inventory Manual Section 2.6.2 on “Boundary Issues” and the International Protocol Section 3.1.3 for more comments on this issue.

 

Question 8: We have merged with another local government and our baseline is no longer accurate or relevant. How do we account for these changes?

Answer 8: While you could try to merge the two baselines – if both municipalities have inventories. But you must make sure that this is achieved in a way that the combined inventory is complete, consistent, transparent and accurate.

 

ICLEI recommends that it is probably easier to start again and develop a new baseline inventory for a new baseline year. However, if there are comprehensive inventory reports available for both municipalities then this should be fairly easy to do.

 

Question 9: What kinds of tools are there to help us calculate our emissions inventory?

Answer 9: The LAKs GHG Inventory Tool is an easy-to-use spreadsheet model which is ideal for medium to smaller local governments to use to get started on their climate change programme by making their first inventory. Larger cities often prefer to use an integrated database tool that can deal with greater complexities, and store and report on progress over multiple years.

The Carbonn Centre for Local Government climate reporting has a list of inventory tools offered to local governments on their website www.carbonn.org Each of the tools mentioned there has a different characteristic or language and some have been developed to only produce a Government Operations emissions inventory and others only produce a Community emissions analysis. A report on the assessment of various inventory tools was completed at the start of the LAKs Project and is available at http://www.municipio.re.it/LAKs

 

Question 10: How should we account for and report the growth of forestry as GHG off-sets?

Answer 10: This LAKs Inventory Tool does not account for emissions off-sets, although a table has been added to the Community–Agriculture worksheet to remind you to capture information of the increasing (or decreasing) size of your forestry sinks. How you report this information is a decision for each local government. We suggest that a qualitative comment on this issue is added to your inventory report.

 

Question 11: How do you define “green electricity” and how do we account for this in our inventory?

Answer 11: Green electricity is usually sourced from 100% renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, and small hydro-power. Biofuel resources and Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) can also be burnt to generate power which is sold as green electricity. Green electricity is usually sold at a premium price which helps support the development and operation of the renewable electricity generating systems.

Green electricity generated from your municipality’s own plant and equipment, and other renewable energy electricity generated within your geopolitical area is measured and recorded in the Local Energy Production worksheet, where any fuels or emission sources are also counted, and any green-electricity emissions can be off-set against grid electricity to reduce total emissions, and this is done in the Community Summary sheet. 

Accounting for the “greenness” of purchased green electricity can be very complex so this has not been included in the LAKs Inventory Tool. However, we recommend that your green electricity purchases are recorded in your Inventory report, including a calculation of the total amount of electricity emissions that have been off-set through the purchase of green electricity.

 

Question 12: Wood is a renewable resource so why does the inventory tool calculate CO2e emissions for the wood fuel we use in our boilers?

Answer 12: Biomass fuels are included in national energy and GHG emissions accounts for information only. Biomass that is harvested sustainably is considered to be a renewable resource. Biomass used as a source of energy is assumed to be harvested in a sustainable manner, and that the entire cycle is a reasonable energy balance. Because the CO2 component of emissions from wood is ignored, the total emissions factor for wood is very small (but it is not zero).

 

Question 13: How do we account for Landfill Gas recovery and use?

Answer 13: Waste incineration and capture of landfill gas are complex, but very important issues, and these are addressed in more detail in the Protocol.

Waste disposal in landfills produce significant environmental impacts including the release of large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. The landfill gas (LFG) emissions from landfills can be mitigated by reducing the disposal of biodegradable waste and by composting. But the recovery, flaring and use of the LFG has to be considered essential, and is a requirement of EU Directive 1999/31/EC that LFG shall be collected treated and used or flared. 

LFG can also be a valuable energy resource that can be used as a primary or supplementary fuel for the production of electric power, or to supply district heating or it may be added to pipeline-quality natural gas or used as a vehicle fuel.

 

When landfill gas is used as an energy source the resultant energy is considered as a renewable resource. The LAKs GHG Inventory Tool allows for landfill gas to be used for many energy purposes and in so doing produces carbon dioxide. This results in a drop of emissions, relative to the release of the gas directly to the atmosphere.

 

Question 14: What do we do if we are having difficulty getting a split of “Commercial Sector” data? Our energy utilities will only supply combined “small consumer” data.

Answer 14: This is a problem for many cities. The most important thing is that all fuels are included so that the total emissions for the city are correctly accounted. If data split into residential and commercial (or commercial and industrial) is not available from an energy supplier, but they will give you a single figure, then enter the data in one section of the inventory OR split the amount on some basis as suggested below. Make sure you include a note about this issue in your inventory report.

To split the data try to find a proxy statistic as the basis for your analysis. Locally based proxy statistics can be useful for some things, and for others the best proxy data will be national or regional statistics. Data slits based on "locally based" factors are often more accurate than using proxy factors based on national statistics.

The best proxy figures for splitting commercial and industrial sector data are regionally based numbers of employees in these sectors. But this may also require some specific energy use data for each sector, such as factors generated from energy audits in those sectors. These should give some actual average energy data per employee figures that could be used to develop an ‘energy per employee’ proxy for the sector.

For "institutions" such as hospitals, schools and universities, proxy data can be based on numbers of hospital beds, or numbers of staff, or numbers of students. If these facilities are “owned” by the municipality then this data may be easy to obtain. (Developing proxy data for sectors makes a good project for a Masters student.)

Eurostat national data (NUTS1 data) is often used to provide “per population average” estimates, but more accurate results can often be achieved using NUTS 2 or NUTS 3 data, or local sources, if this data is available. For more information on this see the International Protocol and your Country Supplement.

 

 

Question 15: What is “double counting”, and how do we avoid this?

Answer 15: Double counting can occur when there is confusion about where the sources of an emission arise. Care must be taken that a source of energy is not counted in two different sectors in the inventory.

An example in the Government Operations inventory would be when electric vehicles owned by the municipality are included in the vehicle data entry section, but the electricity used to charge these vehicles while the cars are at the office is most likely measured by the facility meters which are documented as part of the building sector. The LAKs Inventory Tool has a section on the Buildings Sector data entry sheet to allow you to check and subtract this electricity, if it is also recorded in the vehicle data entry sheet. It could also occur when streetlights are powered from the tram power supply circuit, and the amounts are counted in both the vehicle and streetlight sectors.

For the Community inventory, double counting could occur when a fuel such as coal is supplied to an industry for both energy and chemical process purposes. This is unlikely to impact on inventories produced by municipalities, although it pays to be aware of such situations.

 

Question 16: What are the factors used to calculate indices in the tool and why do we collect that data?

Answer 16: Factors such as the floor area of a building, or the number of occupants, or the numbers of pupils in a school, or the numbers of users of a sports facility like a swimming pool can be very useful to compare (benchmark) the efficiency of different facilities of the same type (such as swimming pools or concert halls). This sort of indicator data must be used with care, but it could (for instance) provide you with the first quick assessment of the best and worst energy using schools in your city.

 

Question 17: What staff training factors should we be considering related to our climate change work?

Answer 17: The development of appropriate human resources and staff training related to climate protection work is a new area for local governments HR departments. This issue is complex and if your municipality decides that it requires verified inventories for carbon trading purposes then the training will need to increase accordingly. A recent (2009) HR survey on this issue noted:

• The GHG accounting and climate change industry is projected to grow significantly as a "super sector" and carbon will be traded in large volumes.

• There is a significant shortage of qualified personnel and experts, and this creates a risk that carbon trading could face accounting scandals.

• Greenhouse gas accounting is expected to become professionalized like that of the IT industry, and grow very large and very rapidly.

• Educational institutions are not adequately training new graduates with GHG accounting and management skills to meet climate change demands.

 

Should you have any additional questions please send these to the LAKs and ICLEI technical support teams (laks@municipio.re.it or ccp-europe@iclei.org).