Development of sectorial and territorial information system to monitor GHG emissions as local and regional climate governance tool: Case study in Valencia (Spain)

Regional and local decision-makers need high quality GHG emission inventories to invest efficiently available resources in climate change mitigation measures. Nevertheless, decision-makers lack of tools to achieve GHG emissions inventories with enough rigor, accuracy and completeness. Thus, a territorial and sectorial information system (SITE) has been developed to monitor GHG emissions as local and regional climate governance tool. This system combines the advantages of both, top-down and bottom-up approaches, to achieve an innovative hybrid approach to account and manage efficiently GHG emissions. The implementation of SITE in Valencia region (Spain) as a case study has quantified 163 indicators in 542 municipalities. Regional gross GHG emissions in 2019 were 30 Mt. CO2 while the fixation was 6 Mt. CO2 eq. 1.8% municipalities emit 34% of total emissions. 34% municipalities fix more than they emit. Finally, sectoral analysis demonstrates that only 20% indicators are responsible for 85% of total emissions.