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San Leandro 2021 Climate Action Plan Page 23 2. GHG Inventory and Forecast BACKGROUND A GHG inventory is a summary of the GHG emissions generated by activities that take place within a community. In some instances, the emissions may be emitted within the jurisdiction, such as emissions from a car being driven within the community’s boundaries. In other cases, the emissions may occur elsewhere but are included in the inventory because the activity responsible for generating the emissions took place within the jurisdiction, such as a community member using electricity generated by a power plant in another part of California. Inventories help elected officials, City staff, and members of the public to understand what activities generate GHG emissions. The GHG emissions inventory and forecast lay the groundwork for the 2021 CAP, which seeks to align the City’s GHG reduction efforts with State-recommended targets. The City is committed to achieving emissions reductions of 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 and 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. An inventory of GHG emissions requires the collection of information from a variety of sectors and sources. The inventory assesses the GHG emissions from activities within San Leandro or associated with the activities of San Leandro community members, not the GHGs that are emitted within the city limits. For example, although the electricity used by San Leandro’s residents and businesses is mostly produced elsewhere, the GHG emissions associated with it appear in San Leandro’s inventory. The decision to calculate emissions in this manner reflects the general philosophy that a community should take ownership of the impacts associated with its resource use and behavior, regardless of whether the emissions occur within the geographical limits of the community. GHG INVENTORY Protocols and Guidance The GHG inventory reflects the GHG emissions associated with everyday activities in the community of San Leandro, such as the electricity used in homes, miles traveled in vehicles, and waste sent to landfills. The results of the inventory are used to set reduction targets and calculate projections of future GHG emissions. GHG accounting represents an emerging field of science that continually benefits from refinements in best practice and emergence of new information. Organizations in California and throughout the United States have established protocols to assist and guide communities in assessing GHG emissions from government operations and community activities. While these protocols are not regulatory, they identify relevant sources or activities, recommend methods to estimate GHG emissions from each source, and provide consistency in the identification, assessment, and presentation of emission results across multiple jurisdictions. 67