Carbon Accounting Pioneer Cities - carbon accounting and climate neutral cities

Starting point / motivation

Cities are not only the economic, cultural and social engines of our world, they also cause about three quarters of global CO2 emissions and 78% of energy consumption. Cities and municipalities therefore play a central role in the fight against climate crisis.

In recent years, many Austrian cities and municipalities have developed a "Smart City Strategy" together with the corresponding target catalogues. This was achieved through active participation and engagement with the national RTI and demonstration programs "City of the Future" (BMK), "Mobility of the Future" (BMK) and "Smart Cities Demo" (climate fund). Austrian cities and municipalities have done essential preparatory work towards climate neutrality.

In addition, the Smart Cities networking platform - funded by the BMK - has created a communication basis in which decision-makers can exchange information on research questions relating to urban topics. In order to be able to walk the path to climate neutrality together, a harmonized method for GHG accounting of the participating cities (activity data, emission factors, system boundary, base year, etc.) is required.

Contents and goals

During the current project GHG balancing and monitoring of climate-neutral cities - Carbon Accounting Pioneer Cities, the pioneer cities receive support on their way to climate neutrality.

The three main goals of Carbon Accounting Pioneer Cities include:

1. Development of the methodological part of the toolkit for harmonized GHG accounting and monitoring systems for climate-neutral pioneer cities (> 50,000 inhabitants) by the end of 2024
2. Development of the methodical part of the Toolkit-Light for the harmonized GHG accounting and monitoring system for small pioneer towns (> 10,000 inhabitants) by the end of 2024
3. The concept for the KNS has been developed and the two toolkits for integration into the learning environment have been prepared.

Methods / implementation

The toolkit is understood to be an Excel-based tool for GHG accounting as well as guidelines in the sense of user manuals for the use of the tool. In addition to an input field for the data to be collected, greenhouse gas emission factors (GHG emission factors) are also integrated in the toolkit, so that every pioneer city can create a greenhouse gas balance with the toolkit.

Expected results

The two sub-goals serve to ensure the success of the project:

1. The developed toolkits experience a corresponding commitment from local (political) decision-makers and are established in the cities after the project period.
2. Relevant stakeholders (federal states, associations of municipalities, cities, etc.) know the project goals and are involved in the process.

Project management

Environment Agency Austria - David Fritz and Stefan Schweiger

Environment Agency Austria
Spittelauer Lände 5
A-1090 Wien
Tel.: +43 (1) 313 04 - 0
E-mail: office@umweltbundesamt.at
Web: www.umweltbundesamt.at