Local climate action; counting challenges

One of the challenges faced by local governments in the work with municipal climate action plans concerns accounting for the greenhouse gas emissions; what emissions should be targeted, development of emissions over time, and how to effectively measure the success of local climate action. In this paper, we present challenges in developing a local emissions inventory, looking at the provision of public services in particular. Public services provided by local municipalities require only a small amount of resources directly. However, services trigger resource flow indirectly, which yields the need for indicators such as Carbon Footprint (CF). The CF is based on lifecycle GHG emissions from the products and services purchased by a defined population. It is calculated using Input-Output Analysis. We present an analysis of the CF of public services provided by the city of Trondheim. The analysis is based on the city's accounting system. It allows for a fairly reliable calculation of indirect emissions, and, with some minor modifications, also accurate data on direct emissions. We contrast the CF to the traditional indicator of GHG emission within a municipality's geographical boundaries and argue that the CF is a more useful and less misleading indicator