As one of the major contributors of greenhouse gases, urban areas have a growing need to reduce emissions and serve as foci of national and international mitigation efforts. Although most cities rely on inventory-based methods to assess their emissions, and reports focus primarily on estimating annual city-wide CO2 emissions for each source sector, the expanding focus on mitigation is increasing the need for more detailed, timely, and comprehensive information on emissions at sub-national scales.
The Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System (IG3IS), a WMO Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) initiative, produced a draft report titled “Urban Greenhouse Gas Emissions Observation and Monitoring Best Research Practices.” This report connects the inventory and process model-based information with atmospheric observation and modelling to provide the best possible estimates of greenhouse gas emissions at the national and urban scales. Guidelines in the report describe current state of art technologies in urban greenhouse gas information systems: the report lists the available methodologies, describes how they can be best implemented, and provides guidance on end-user outputs. With several unsolved challenges in this evolving field of research, the draft also includes a discussion on ongoing research practices and considerations.
This effort builds on AC4 research investments and external, intra and interagency collaboration, and aims to provide guidelines that can be used by researchers and stakeholders. The draft report is now open to public comments until January 31, 2022.
Access the draft report and instructions for submitting review comments »
