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Reducing Urban Greenhouse Gas Footprints.
Peter-Paul Pichler1, Timm Zwickel1, Abel Chavez2
1Research Domain Transdisciplinary Concepts & Methods, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, PO Box 60 12 03, D-14412, Potsdam, Germany.
Scientific Reports
|November 9, 2017
Summary
Cities
Area of Science:
- Urban metabolism and sustainability science.
- Climate change mitigation strategies.
- Environmental economics and policy.
Background:
- Cities are economically open systems reliant on global supply chains for goods and energy.
- Greenhouse Gas (GHG) footprints are crucial for urban climate mitigation, encompassing direct and upstream emissions.
- Urban officials often lack awareness or confidence in managing upstream emissions from consumption.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide the first internationally comparable Greenhouse Gas (GHG) footprints for major global cities.
- To analyze the significance of upstream emissions in urban consumption.
- To assess the potential for local policy to influence these emissions.
Main Methods:
- Development and application of a consistent methodology for calculating GHG footprints.
- Inclusion of both direct and upstream emissions from household consumption.
- Comparative analysis across four diverse urban areas: Berlin, Delhi NCT, Mexico City, and New York metropolitan area.
Main Results:
- Upstream emissions from urban household consumption are comparable in scale to direct territorial emissions.
- Local policy interventions demonstrate greater potential for reducing upstream emissions than commonly believed.
- The study establishes a scalable method for global city GHG footprinting.
Conclusions:
- Urban consumption-based GHG footprints are critical for effective climate action.
- Cities possess greater agency in mitigating global emissions through consumption policies than previously recognized.
- Standardized GHG footprinting is essential for informed urban climate policy.
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