User:Dtetta/carbon accounting

The U.S. Community Protocol (developed by ICLEI–Local Governments for Sustainability USA) is intended to support multiple goals that cities and communities may have in reducing GHG emissions. These include: climate action planning, highlighting climate change accountability and leadership, tracking GHG emissions performance over time, and encouraging community action. The protocol focuses on specific emission sources and activities to characterize emissions rather than using a Scope 1, 2 and 3 framework, though the overall coverage is similar. The guidance suggests communities consider the stories they wish to convey about community emissions, and what reporting methods will help tell those stories. Five basic emissions generating activities are emphasized. These are: use of electricity by the community; use of fuel in residential and commercial stationary combustion equipment; on‐road passenger and freight motor vehicle travel; use of energy in drinking water and wastewater treatment and distribution; and generation of solid waste by the community. Reporting guidance covers a variety of approaches, and organizations can include one or more of them. These include GHG activities and sources over which a local government has significant influence; GHG activities of community interest; household consumption inventories; and an inventory that incorporates the GHG emissions (and removals) from land use. An independent evaluation of inventories that have been developed using this protocol has questioned whether they capture the full range of Scope 1 sources within their jurisdictions