CDP Publishes Guide to GHG Emissions Monitoring Tools for City Inventories

CDP has released a guide providing cities with an overview of available greenhouse gas emissions monitoring tools and datasets to assist in building city-wide emissions inventories. The resource is aimed at municipalities that lack the local data collection capacity needed to develop a robust GHG inventory from primary sources.

Cities are identified as critical actors in limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, but many lack the resources to build emissions inventories from local data alone. A greenhouse gas inventory forms the foundation for a city's climate action journey, enabling it to establish an emissions baseline, set reduction targets, prioritise climate actions and track progress over time. CDP's guide catalogues available tools and datasets that cities can use to access emissions data, covering three stages of the city climate action journey from initial assessment through to implementation.

The availability of standardised tools reduces the barrier to entry for smaller and lower-capacity cities, particularly those in emerging economies, which face the greatest climate risks but often have the fewest resources for data collection. Building a GHG inventory is the prerequisite for cities to participate in CDP-ICLEI Track, the disclosure platform through which nearly 1,000 local governments globally report their climate actions, targets and project financing needs. Cities that disclose through this platform gain visibility among investors and technical assistance providers.

CDP recommends that cities use available emissions tools as a starting point and transition to locally collected data as capacity improves. The guide is structured to serve municipalities at different levels of climate action maturity, from those conducting initial environmental assessments to those already in the implementation phase. CDP continues to expand the resources available to cities as part of its broader mission to connect subnational governments with the climate finance and technical support needed to achieve local climate goals.

Key figure — 1.5°C — the global warming limit that city-level GHG monitoring tools are designed to support