Orange County NC Website
Cities for Climate Protection campaign, the first step to pursue climate mitigation planning and <br />action is to complete an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions. For Carrboro, an inventory was <br />first attempted for Orange County (in collaboration with other local governments) in 2007 (using <br />2005 data), and was subsequently updated for Carrboro by a UNC Capstone Team (using 2009 <br />data). In 2015, a second UNC Capstone Team worked with the Town to create an updated <br />community greenhouse gas inventory for 20123. This inventory revealed a total greenhouse gas <br />emissions for the community of 112k tons COz equivalent (CO2e), which equates to 5.5 tons <br />COze per capita. The inventory accounted for emissions for the area within the municipal limits <br />for "direct" GHG emissions (e.g., combustion of natural gas and motor vehicle fuelsi along with <br />limited "indirect" GHG emissions, most notably from the use of purchased electricity. As <br />further discussed below, this community scale methodology is not explicitly designed to more <br />holistically or comprehensively account for the full spectrum of emissions from production to <br />consumption from household /personal or business activities. <br />Subsequent to completion of the greenhouse gas inventory, climate mitigation and adaptation <br />recommendations have been drafted with support from the Energy and Climate Task Force. The <br />draft Community Climate Action Plan (CCAP) recommends a 50% per capita reduction in <br />emissions by 2025. This recommendation is specifically articulated as cutting "the carbon <br />footprint in half over the next 10 years for the entire community, Town operations, the buildings <br />and transportation "sectors ", and ultimately each resident and business ". The plan includes <br />recommendations organized around themes of community integration, energy efficiency in <br />buildings, transportation, renewable energy, ecosystem protection and restoration, and (following <br />on community input) climate mitigation through food choices. In considering the addition of <br />food related recommendations, some initial thoughts regarding accounting for food (and other) <br />consumption related emissions are included below. <br />Emissions Estimates Based on Household Consumption <br />Researchers at UC- Berkeley have developed emissions estimates for the entire U.S., using a <br />different method than in the community inventory that accounts for the entire "lifecycle" <br />( "cradle to grave ") of activities that households purse that lead to emissions.' These estimates <br />have been completed for five different sectors associated with individual households: <br />transportation, dwellings, food, goods, and services, by zip code (Figures 1 and 2; the emissions <br />shown are for the entire zip code areas across jurisdictional boundaries). <br />2 "Climate Change Mitigation." United Nations Environment Programme. Accessed March 24, 2015. <br />http: / /www.unep .orb /climatechan�4e /mitigation/ Climate change mitigation is defined as efforts to reduce or prevent emission of <br />greenhouse gases <br />s The inventory is available at -//www.town <br />a Christopher M. Jones and Daniel M. Kammen, Spatial Distribution of U.S. Household Carbon Footprints Reveals <br />Suburbanization Undermines Greenhouse Gas Benefits of Urban Population Density. Environ. Sci. Technol., 2013, <br />dx.doi.org /10.1021/es4O34364. Sponsored by UC- Berkeley Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, California Air <br />Resources Board, National Science Foundation. Online calculator and maps available at <br />hWr: / /coo1c1ima1e.berkeley.ec i/ calculator <br />2 <br />