Standards for Municipal Climate Action Monitoring

Developing harmonized nationwide quality and procedural standards for effective municipal climate action monitoring

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Municipalities play a key role in implementing climate action to achieve national climate targets. To assess the effectiveness and alignment of local climate action, municipalities need practical and robust tools for climate action monitoring. Building on the established accounting standard BISKO (Municipal Accounting Systematic; in German: Bilanzierungs-Systematik Kommunal), the project “Standards for Municipal Climate Action Monitoring” develops nationwide quality and procedural standards for comprehensive monitoring of municipal climate activities.

The project is carried out on behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) and is technically supported by the German Environment Agency (UBA). The project consortium ifeu, Öko-Institut and Klima-Bündnis combines a scientific perspective with extensive hands-on municipal experience.

Project objectives

The project aims to (further) develop standards that enable municipalities to assess the impacts of local climate action efficiently and meaningfully. The standards developed are intended to:

• ensure measurability, comparability, transparency and consistency of municipal climate action activities,
• be compatible with the objectives of the national climate strategy,
• address the full use of municipal climate protection potential, and
• be scientifically sound while remaining practical for different types of municipalities.

A further key aim is to prepare the standards in a way that enables broad application and long-term use, and to disseminate them via existing multipliers (e.g. the National Climate Initiative’s Agency for Municipal Climate Action, federal states and networks).

Content and work packages

The project is structured into several interlinked work packages (WPs):

WP 1: Further development of BISKO and information materials

The existing standard for municipal energy and greenhouse gas inventories (BISKO) will be further developed in light of new scientific findings and practical experience, including:

• reviewing and adjusting core methodological assumptions,
• placing greater emphasis on non-energy-related emissions as well as the LULUCF sector,
• providing more precise guidance on data sources, calculation logic and data quality.

Furthermore, target-group-specific information materials (e.g. guidance documents, checklists and FAQs) will be produced for municipalities and service providers.

WP 2: Developing additional standards for comprehensive climate action monitoring

In addition to inventories, further monitoring elements will be developed and standardised:

• standardised factsheets for planning and monitoring municipal climate action measures,
• a methodology to determine and document the full use of municipal mitigation potential (e.g. renewable energy, sinks),
• a standard for municipal climate action and target scenarios on the path to greenhouse gas neutrality,
• further development and standardisation of the municipal influence-based inventory,
• an accounting standard for greenhouse gas emissions of municipal administrations,
• revision and extension of municipal climate action indicators.

WP 3: Integrating the standards into a monitoring system

The individual monitoring standards will be combined into an integrated, modular climate action monitoring system that reflects different municipal starting points and provides practical guidance for application.

Approach

The project follows an iterative, transparent and participatory approach. Key elements include:

• a systematic analysis of the state of research and existing standards,
• close coordination across the work packages,
• active involvement of municipalities, representatives of federal states, experts and tool providers through surveys, workshops and test applications,
• testing the standards in pilot municipalities,
• target-group-specific preparation of results in methods papers, information materials and handbooks.