ABAG Green Communities Program

Program Overview - GHG Emissions Inventories - Benchmarking Training

Government Operations Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Inventories

Establishing a baseline GHG emissions inventory for a government's operations is an important first step in advancing a jurisdiction's climate protection initiatives. It demonstrates a local government's commitment to understanding their emissions and can serve as an example for others to do the same.

In the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area region, the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) will manage the program with training provided by ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA (ICLEI). The goal of the program is to assist up to twenty-five local government jurisdictions in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area region in the completion of local government operations greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventories over multiple sectors in accordance with the Local Government Operations Protocol (LGOP) developed in partnership by ICLEI, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), California Climate Action Registry, and The Climate Registry. CARB recognizes that local governments are essential partners in achieving California's goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Many of the proposed measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions rely on local government actions. In the AB32 Scoping Plan, CARB recommends a greenhouse gas reduction goal for local governments of 15 percent below today's levels by 2020 to ensure that their municipal and community-wide emissions match the State's reduction target.

Contact Information
Please contact Jerry Lahr, Energy Program Manager, at jerryl@abag.ca.gov with any questions about this program.