(c) 2008, California Sustainability Alliance and Strategic Energy Innovations
A draft of the LGO Protocol was released in June 2008 and
made available for public comment (Accessible at http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/protocols/localgov/localgov.htm).
The main aspects of the draft Protocol are described in detail below.
Protocol Overview
The LGO Protocol provides the principles, approach,
methodology, and procedures that are needed to develop a local government
operations GHG emissions inventory. It is designed to support the complete,
transparent, and accurate reporting of a local government’s GHG emissions.
Additionally, it provides the necessary emissions calculation methodologies and
reporting guidance applicable to all U.S. local governments.
It is important to clearly point out that the Protocol is a
tool for accounting and reporting GHG emissions across a local government’s
operations; it is not designed for quantifying the reductions of GHG mitigation
projects that will be used to produce offsets.
The development of the LGO Protocol is based on existing GHG
programs and protocols from a number of organizations such as WRI/WBCSD, CARB,
CCAR, ICLEI, ISO, TCR, and the U.S. EPA.
The Protocol is a “program neutral” guidance that can be
used by any local government. However, if a local government is a member of
either ICLEI or CCAR, they are subject to program-specific requirements in
addition to the general guidance embodied in the LGO Protocol. The Protocol was
created so that, regardless of program affiliation, local governments are able
to overlay their respective program’s guidance on top of the Protocol and still
be able to meet the individual program’s requirements.
This Protocol is intended to reflect best practices
associated with GHG accounting and will continue to evolve periodically as new
science and technical knowledge becomes available.
Partner Objectives
In addition to achieving the general purpose of the
Protocol, each of the program partners has additional objectives:
- The
CARB intends to provide this Protocol to help enable local governments in
California to develop and report consistent and accurate GHG inventories
that can track reductions in overall GHG emissions to support the State’s
AB 32 program and goals.
- The
CCAR intends for this Protocol to provide “industry-specific” guidance for
CCAR’s local government members to enable more policy-relevant
quantification and reporting of GHG emission inventories.
- ICLEI
seeks to offer standardized guidance to all local governments in the U.S.
(including but not limited to ICLEI members) on the development of GHG
emissions inventories. This Protocol effectively serves as the translation
of ICLEI’s International Local Government Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
- The
TCR plans to look to this Protocol in the future as it strives to develop
guidance for TCR local government reporters that will be applicable across
the U.S., in Canada, and in Mexico.
Protocol Details
The important details of the Protocol are described briefly
below.
- The
accounting and reporting of all six Kyoto GHG gases (carbon dioxide,
methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur
hexafluoride) are encouraged within the Protocol.
- The
Protocol was developed to allow local governments with different levels of
resources and data availability to create a complete and consistent
inventory of the GHG emissions. To accomplish this, the Protocol uses a
tiered quantification system to present various levels of methodologies
according to their level of rigor and accuracy.
- The
Protocol categorizes direct and indirect emissions into three specific
Scopes, which is in line with the WRI/WBCSD’s GHG Protocol. The Scopes
are:
- Scope
1: All direct GHG emissions from stationary and mobile combustion and
process and fugitive emission
- Scope
2: Indirect GHG emissions associated with the consumption of purchased or
acquired electricity, steam, heating or cooling
- Scope
3: All other indirect emissions not covered in Scope 2, such as upstream
and downstream emissions, emissions resulting from the extraction and
production of purchased materials and fuels, employee commute, business
travel, waste disposal, contracted services, etc.
Local governments are encouraged
to, at a minimum, quantify and report all Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Reporting of
Scope 3 is optional.
- Along
with scopes, emissions are also categorized into local government sectors.
The sectors are:
- Buildings
and other facilities
- Streetlights
and traffic signals
- Water
supply facilities
- Vehicle
fleet
- Power
generation facilities
- Solid
waste facilities
- Wastewater
facilities
- In
addition to GHG emissions accounting, a reporting guidance is also
included as part of the Protocol. Examples of items within the reporting
guidance include specifications and descriptions of methodologies and
emissions factors that were utilized, local government profile
information, and the associated GHG emissions from each government sector
and scope. The reporting guidance is designed so that the methodologies,
sources, and procedures of the inventory that are undertaken by each local
government are transparent and can easily be replicable.
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