Methodological framework for the quantification of ghg emission reductions from climate change mitigation actions

Abstract

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 complete, 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 framework could be easily applied by EU Member States, but also by other non-EU countries, 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).