Calculating current and future greenhouse gas emissions, and the effects of climate actions is critical in the global struggle to limit the rise in temperatures.
Not only are precise calculations a prerequisite for informed political decisions on which actions to take, they are also the foundation for transparent and credible global action.
Using the UNEP DTU Partnership GACMO (Greenhouse gas Abatement Cost MOdel) Ghana has increased the transparency on the country’s NDC mitigation action and greenhouse gas reduction actions.
The model has also been instrumental in the required updates for many countries of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement.
This is stated in the recently released biannual report from Ghana to UNFCCC.
Calculating and tracking mitigation efforts
The GACMO model has been developed through more than 20 years of research at UNEP DTU Partnership, and was used by many countries to prepare their INDCs leading up to COP21 in Paris.
Using newest data on energy consumption of fossil fuels and electricity, divided into sectors, the model calculates total current greenhouse gas emissions and with growth factors for each sector a baseline for Business As Usual scenario until 2020, 2025, 2030, and 2050.
Based on this the model can then calculate and track the effects of about 100 climate mitigation actions such as installing wind turbines or enabling more widespread use of efficient cookstoves etc. It also adds in effects from the ongoing drop in prices on renewable power sources and shows the cost-effectiveness of the approaches.
As such it can not only be used for assessing climate action, but is a useful tool for Monitoring Reporting and Verification ensuring transparency in climate change mitigation actions.
The model can be downloaded for free here.