Free Greenhouse Gas Accounting Tool

The greenhouse gas accounting tool is a free resource available for councils seeking to calculate their own carbon baseline. The launch webinar on Friday 11 September was attended by over 130 delegates, and seamlessly chaired by Councillor Andrew Cooper.

We heard from Simeran Bachra, UK Cities Manager at CDP (previously the Carbon Disclosure Project) and Alis-Daniela Torres, Sustainable Resources Officer at ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability. They spoke about the importance of disclosure and understanding emissions’ profile. Disclosure of climate-related data is the first key step towards building a sustainable low-carbon economy, providing the ability to track progress and ambition.

Jo Wall and Rachel Toresen-Owuor, from Local Partnerships, took delegates through the tool itself, how to complete it and what to look out for. Ariane Crampton, Head of Carbon Reduction at Wiltshire Council, provided insights from her own experience of using the accounting tool. If you missed the webinar the recording can be found here.

Thank you to delegates that attended the virtual event and contributed to a very engaging Q&A session. Time did not allow for all questions to be answered on the day. A revised FAQ document will be issued this month addressing common queries raised either during the webinar or following the tool’s launch. Attendees of the webinar will automatically receive a copy of the FAQ, and it will be available on our website here. Please send any further comments or queries relating to the tool to ghgaccounting@localpartnerships.gov.uk.

A common theme, apparent in feedback thus far, relates to a wider range of Scope 3 measures to be included in the tool. We intend to develop more of these measures to be included in the next iteration of the model, which should be available early next year. In the meantime, to understand more about your council’s Scope 3 emissions and what can be done to reduce them, please contact ghgaccounting@localpartnerships.gov.uk.

Since its launch, the greenhouse gas accounting tool has been downloaded 547 times. If you have already completed or intend to complete the tool, please consider adding your data to the benchmarking exercise. The intention is to create a benchmarking resource for local authorities through the LG Inform platform. This would enable councils to understand how their performance compares with their peers. We are keen to engage as many authorities as possible in this benchmarking exercise, as it is not straightforward due to the disparate nature of local authorities. If you wish to participate in the benchmarking please submit your completed baseline by email to ghgaccounting@localpartnerships.gov.uk by 31 October 2020.