48 ■ CITIES AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Note that the baselines reported are largely for 2005 or 2006. Only in the
cases of Calgary, Delhi, Glasgow, Kolkata, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City,
Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Seoul, and Washington, DC, are emissions given
for earlier years. Because 2005 is the reporting year for most of the studies,
it could become a standard baseline year for reporting emissions for further
urban areas.
A precautionary note on the accuracy of baselines should be made. Th e
results for total emissions are reported to an accuracy of 10 kilotons in table
2.5, but this accuracy is only to facilitate the calculation of per capita emis-
sions in table 2.6. Baselines reported in both tables are accurate at best to two
signifi cant fi gures.
Conclusion
For urban areas to become more eff ective at tackling climate change through
GHG reductions, two key requirements are found. First, an open, global proto-
col for quantifying GHG emissions attributable to urban areas must be estab-
lished. Second, comparable baseline measures of GHG emissions for urban
areas are needed.
Th e primary contribution of this chapter has been to present GHG emis-
sions for more than 40 urban areas (cities and metropolitan regions) from fi ve
continents. Th is has been achieved by assembling and assessing previous stud-
ies of urban GHG emissions and adding further analysis where necessary and
where data permit. Discrepancies have been found between previous studies in
the methodology for determining emissions from waste and in the reporting
of emissions for aviation, marine, agricultural, and industrial processes. Our
results have been presented (in tables 2.5 and 2.6) so that these diff erences can
be recognized (through reference to table 2.2).
Despite these oft en minor diff erences, this work has shown that the potential
clearly exists to establish an open, global protocol for quantifying GHG emis-
sions attributable to urban areas. Such a protocol must be suffi ciently robust
and compatible with the UNFCCC, that is, the IPCC, guidelines. Such compat-
ibility should include sectoral methodologies and emissions factors, but not
necessarily a boundary limited scope.
Th e IPCC guidelines provide help with resolving some of the confl icting
issues. Emissions from waste, for example, could be determined using the
IPCC (2006) guidelines; this has primarily been hindered by the signifi cant
data requirements. Agricultural and industrial process emissions, though small
for many urban areas, need to be more carefully accounted for; again, the IPCC
guidelines can be followed. Whether emissions from aviation and marine are