ClimateOS is based on calculating emissions created by human activities, such as transporting people and goods, heating and cooling buildings, construction, agriculture, as well as producing goods.
In using our Transition elements, ClimateOS gives you the opportunity to choose between which activities to include or exclude. The emissions boundaries you set for your city or region in ClimateOS are based upon the selected Transition elements and not necessarily reporting scopes and geographical boundaries. We encourage and facilitate for users to model the widest sense of their footprint, increasing the scope of emissions addressed. A significant portion, often above half of a city's footprint, comes from the consumption of goods and services from beyond its boundaries. So these emissions often lie beyond the jurisdiction of municipal climate plans, in part because of the difficulty people have found in quantifying them as well as because of geographical reporting.
Accounting for emissions
We believe that accounting for a city's emissions and how responsibility is taken for a city's true emissions are two separate but compatible parts.
Accounting for emissions according to a specific greenhouse gas reporting standard (for example Greenhouse Gas Protocol for Cities) in which a city or region follows concrete guidelines on which emissions to report is a task that most municipalities have committed to carry out. We are developing a function that will let you export all the data you enter into ClimateView in compliance with different reporting standards.
You may, by including Transition elements that go beyond the geographical boundary, be concerned about double counting of emissions. Our reporting function will separate, where required, territorial emissions. Double counting is essentially a problem of accounting but should not be a barrier to modelling a more comprehensive transition for the widest possible footprint. Often responsibility for emissions is shared with another place, other people and businesses. You can use ClimateOS to inform that discussion and take steps towards reducing imported and consumption-based emissions.
Consumption-based emissions
Consumption-based emissions are a concern in many municipalities, but a complex calculation and difficult to address. Tracking down consumption-based emissions is a complex system of energy and resources used, where most often a long chain of manufactures are involved. We're aiming to create predefined emission profiles for some of the most important consumption-based emissions, starting with areas such as low-carbon construction. We'll notify users as more Transition elements are developed for these emissions areas.