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14 <br />Appendix 1: General Inventory Methodology Guidelines <br /> <br />Local Government Operations Protocol <br />A national standard called the Local Government Operations Protocol (LGO Protocol) has been adopted by the California Air <br />Resources Board (ARB) in conjunction with ICLEI, the California Climate Action Registry, and The Climate Registry. This <br />standard provides accounting principles, boundaries, quantification methods and procedures for reporting greenhouse gas <br />emissions from local government operations. The LGO Protocol provides the basis of ICLEI’s ClearPath software’s <br />government track. This software allows local governments to compile data and perform emissions calculations with <br />standardized methods. <br /> <br />Greenhouse Gases and Carbon Dioxide Equivalent <br />In accordance with LGO Protocol, this inventory includes all six greenhouse gases regulated under the Kyoto Protocol (CO2, <br />CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs, and SF6). Emissions from various greenhouse gases are converted into a carbon dioxide equivalent <br />(CO2e) because different greenhouse gases have different half-lives and stronger or weaker impacts on the greenhouse <br />effect. This conversion is made based on the global warming potential of each gas as determined by the IPCC’s 4th <br />Assessment Report. All reported CO2e is in metric tons (MTCO2e). <br /> <br />Calculating Emissions <br />There are two methods by which emissions are calculated. Measurement-based methods are direct measurements of <br />greenhouse gas emissions from a monitored system. This includes emissions from a power plant, wastewater treatment <br />plant, landfill, or other industrial facilities. This is the most accurate method of measuring emissions but is only available for <br />a few, stationary sources. <br /> <br />The other method of calculating emissions is using a calculation-based method. This method estimates emissions based on <br />activity data and emissions factors. The activity data (e.g. kilowatt hours of electricity consumed, therms of natural gas <br />consumed, gallons of gasoline, etc.) is multiplied by the emissions factor (e.g. CO2 emitted / kWH, CO2 emitted/therm, etc.) <br />which determines the estimated amount of emitted emissions. <br /> <br />The Scopes Framework <br />This inventory follows the LGO Protocol differentiation of emissions by sector and by three different “scopes”. <br /> <br />40