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Greenhouse Gas Emission

Baselines for Global Cities and

Metropolitan Regions

Christopher A. Kennedy, Anu Ramaswami,

Sebastian Carney, and Shobhakar Dhakal

Increasing urbanization, globalization, and expected climate change will neces-
sitate new forms of urban management in the twenty-fi rst century. New urban
metrics will be required, including measures of urban competitiveness (Duff y
1995; Llewelyn-Davies, Banister, and Hall 2004), gross metropolitan product
(BEA 2009), urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Dodman 2009; Harvey
1993; Kates and others 1998; Satterthwaite 2008), material fl ows (Kennedy,
Cuddihy, and Yan 2007), and vulnerability to climate change (Rosenzweig and
others 2009). Such measures will also inform assessment of risks that may be used
to guide investment in cities. In other words, many of the metrics that are cur-
rently recorded for nations are now needed and can be developed for urban areas.
Th is chapter is concerned with the establishment of baseline measures of
GHG emissions attributable to urban areas (cities and metropolitan areas).
Over the past two decades, several entities have been active in establishing
methodologies for estimating urban GHG emissions. One example is ICLEI
(International Coalition for Local Environmental Initiatives, now known
as Local Governments for Sustainability), which is a worldwide coalition of
local governments (ICLEI 2006). More than 500 of ICLEI’s member cities have
established GHG baselines using soft ware developed by Torrie-Smith Asso-
ciates, under the Partners for Climate Protection program. Several larger cit-
ies, including, for example, London, Paris, and Tokyo, have developed their
baselines using their own methodologies. Eighteen European urban areas,
including eight capital regions, have been studied using the Greenhouse Gas

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