About This Project

Cities are responsible for three quarters of global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Because of this, cities are a key area for implementing policies designed for climate change mitigation. However, most of previous CO2 emission inventories were developed at the global or national level. We will use environmentally extended input-output model to develop a feasible methodology to construct CO2 emissions inventory of cities from both production and consumption perspectives.

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What is the context of this research?

We will estimate the CO₂ emissions of cities from both production and consumption perspectives. The production-based CO₂ emissions inventories will be complied according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidance and include all emissions produced by socioeconomic sectors and residence activities directly within the city boundary. Inventories consist of CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel consumption and industrial processes.

The consumption-based CO₂ emissions will be constructed by the environmental input-output analysis (IOA) method which is an established life cycle assessment (LCA) and carbon emissions analysis approach. Emissions are induced by different final uses, including household consumption, government consumption, capital formation, and inventory changes.

What is the significance of this project?

The methodology of constructing CO₂ emission inventories at the city level is meaningful for urban low-carbon development. Advantages of consumption-based accounting have been shown in many studies. This approach elucidates the drivers of emissions growth, improves cost-effectiveness and justice and addresses carbon leakage. At the city level, consumption-based accounting can help cities to reduce emissions both within city boundaries and along their entire supply chains at minimum cost. Interregional cooperation on climate change mitigation should employ consumption-based accounting to allocate mitigation responsibilities more fairly and efficiently. Therefore, consumption-based carbon emission accounting is a complementary tool for promoting climate action at the city level.

What are the goals of the project?

We aim to develop a feasible methodology for constructing CO₂ emissions inventories of cities from both production and consumption perspectives. Three major goals are designed.

1) Collection of relevant data of energy consumption, emission factors, and input-output tables. These are the foundations of constructing emissions inventories.

2) Construction of CO₂ emissions inventories. Based on the IPCC guidance and environmental input-output model, we will develop the methodology to construct CO₂ emission inventories of cities from both production and consumption perspectives.

3) Comparison between production- and consumption-based emissions. We will compare and discuss the gaps between the two inventories and analyze the drivers of CO₂ emissions from the perspective of final uses.