Page 96 - U4SSC KPIs Verification Manual - A guide for verifiers

Dimension Environment
Sub-Dimension Environment

Category Air Quality
KPI Name GHG Emissions
KPI No. EN: EN: AQ: 2C Type: Core Type: Sustainable

Definition / Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita
Description

Rationale / In order to prevent the most severe impacts of climate change, countries have
Interpretation / signed on to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Benchmarking (UNFCCC) and agreed to cooperate with the aim of limiting the increase in global
average temperature and the resulting climate change impacts. In this context, the
industrialized countries need to prepare and submit, on an annual basis, precise
and regularly updated inventories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
“Internationally, the main instrument to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is
the Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in 1997 and commits its Parties by setting
internationally binding emission reduction targets.”

The Kyoto Protocol runs in two commitment periods; the first one started in 2008
and ended in 2012, whereas the second started in 2013 and will end in 2020.
At the same time, the European Union (EU) has set its climate change mitigation
objective for 2020, committing itself to reduce its emissions by at least 20 per cent
compared to 1990 levels (30 per cent subject to the conclusion of a comprehensive
international climate change agreement).
Methodologies for determining GHG emissions include but are not limited to:
i. The Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories
(GPC)
ii. BSI Norm: PAS 2070 on Specification for the assessment of greenhouse gas
emissions of a city
iii. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC Guidelines for National
Greenhouse Gas Inventories
iv. Global Protocol for Community-Scale GHG Emissions' (GPC), (2012 Accounting
and Reporting Standard)
v. ISO 14064 series on Greenhouse Gases
Benchmarking should be based on the “Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol”
(UNFCCC).
A declining trend and lower values are considered positive.

Source(s) NOTE 1 – UNFCCC. Kyoto Protocol. Retrieved from <http:// unfccc .int/ kyoto
_protocol/ items/ 2830 .php>
NOTE 2 – UNFCCC. Kyoto Protocol Doha Amendment. Retrieved from <http://
unfccc .int/ kyoto _protocol/ doha _amendment/ items/ 7362 .php>

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