Title
Presentation of the 2019-2020 Chatham County Greenhouse Gas Inventory Results
Abstract
Action Requested: Receive the presentation.
Introduction & Background: Greenhouse gases are those natural and man-made emissions which contribute to global warming. A greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory is a report consisting of GHG emission sources in a given community and the associated emissions quantified using standardized methods. This data can then be used by the community to understand and identify opportunities for action with the goal of reducing emissions and mitigating global warming.
This GHG inventory compiles emissions data from both internal county government operations and the county as a whole for calendar years 2019 and 2020. The aggregation of known emission sources for which data can be gathered creates a model that is useful for seeing the relative contribution of different sectors of the community to the overall emissions for the county. It can also be useful for comparing the emissions of the county during different time periods, but only if the modeling method and data sources are consistent. The inventory is not an absolute measure of emissions, since there are emissions sources that are difficult to quantify and have to be either ignored or calculated based on regional averages.
Discussion & Analysis: The current inventory shows that transportation is still the largest contributor to GHG emissions in the county, representing just over 40% of the total. This is followed by industrial (~21%), residential (~20%), and commercial (~9%) energy usage, though the combined energy sector contribution is larger than transportation. The other sectors modeled were agriculture, solid waste, and internal government operations, which combined were approximately 8% of the total.
Chatham County has had previous inventories done for the years 2010 and 2015. These were completed by graduate students from Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, respectively. The inventories are both based on actual data where possible, but assumptions were made and extrapolations had to be performed to create input data for some emissions sources. Some of the data sources used could not be located for this current inventory, so other, more consistent, data sources were identified for use going forward. There was also data that could have been used that was not used, likely because the students did not know where to look to find it. Because of these data differences, comparing the results from the current inventory to the two previous inventories is not a useful exercise. It presents a skewed perception of the county’s progress towards GHG emission reduction because the majority of the change from year to year is due to the different data models rather than actual progress towards emission reduction.
This inventory represents the most complete and accurate model of the county’s emissions that has been done to date. In addition, whenever possible, data sources were chosen and documented so that future GHG inventories should be able to use the same data source. In most cases, the data is updated at the source every calendar year. When the next inventory is done using this same data model, we should be able to compare the results to this current inventory and get a sense of the county’s progress towards GHG emission reduction.
How does this relate to the Comprehensive Plan: Under the Resiliency plan element, the Big Idea is to become a carbon negative county. Studying the current GHG emissions allows us to gauge progress as we work towards this goal.
Budgetary Impact: There is no budgetary impact from receiving this presentation.
Recommendation: Receive the presentation.