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 avery useful exercise that can be used to meet a variety of objectives, such asinforming policy design, enhancing policy implementation, assessing policyeffectiveness, justifying budget allocation, and attracting climate finance. Itis also a reporting requirement according to the reporting framework of theUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) andthe Monitoring Mechanism Regulation of the European Union (EU) aboutclimate change relevant information. However, the reporting of emissionssavings associated to mitigation actions by EU Member States is not com-plete, according to recent technical reports of the European EnvironmentalAgency. The purpose of this paper is to present a methodological frameworkthat can be used to quantify the effect (i.e. emission reductions) of themitigation actions. It is based on comprehensive and transparent models andformulas that could be easily tracked and reproduced. The proposed frame-work could be easily applied by EU Member States, but also by other non-EUcountries, to enhance the reporting of climate change related informationto European Commission and UN bodies. By applying the methodologicalframework for Greece, as a case study, it was possible to estimate the effectof 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).