Methodological Framework for the Quantification of GHG Emission Reductions from Climate Change Mitigation Actions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13052/spee1048-4236.391411Keywords:
Climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, mitigation actions, assessment of the effect of policies and measuresAbstract
The quantification of the effect of climate change mitigation actions is a
very useful exercise that can be used to meet a variety of objectives, such as
informing policy design, enhancing policy implementation, assessing policy
effectiveness, justifying budget allocation, and attracting climate finance. It
is also a reporting requirement according to the reporting framework of the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and
the Monitoring Mechanism Regulation of the European Union (EU) about
climate change relevant information. However, the reporting of emissions
savings associated to mitigation actions by EU Member States is not com-
plete, according to recent technical reports of the European Environmental
Agency. The purpose of this paper is to present a methodological framework
that can be used to quantify the effect (i.e. emission reductions) of the
mitigation actions. It is based on comprehensive and transparent models and
formulas that could be easily tracked and reproduced. The proposed frame-
work could be easily applied by EU Member States, but also by other non-EUcountries, to enhance the reporting of climate change related information
to European Commission and UN bodies. By applying the methodological
framework for Greece, as a case study, it was possible to estimate the effect
of implemented policies and measures for historical years (ex-post analysis),
but also to estimate the projected effect (ex-ante analysis) of implemented,
adopted and planned policies for future years (e.g. 2030).
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