Assessing urban emissions through different methodologies: an analysis of Brazilian cities

This paper compares the different methodologies used to measure greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in forty-seven Brazilian cities. The paper highlights the characteristics, similarities, and differences between these methodologies to show how they can impact GHG results. In line with previous literature, it demonstrates how different carbon accounting approaches produce different GHG results. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the lack of transparency in GHG reports hinders accurate assessments of results and the ability to make comparisons between cities. When analyzing the GHG inventory of a given city or comparing GHG results among cities, in order to understand variations, it is essential to identify the methodology, base year, emission sources, global warming potential, and calculation methods used to derive results. This paper contributes to the literature discussing the consistency and comparability of GHG emissions data at the city level. It also uses the reality of Brazilian cities, thus addressing a literature gap in climate governance studies, which tend to focus on cities from Global North. This study provides insights to academics and policymakers on how to develop broader, more complete, and more transparent GHG inventories, and evidence precautions that should be taken when analyzing a city’s GHG report.