Daly City's Green Vision - City of Daly City

A.1.5.3 Information Items
Information items are emissions sources that, for a variety of reasons, are not included as Scope 1, 2, or 3 emissions
in the inventory. In order to provide a more complete picture of emissions from Daly City’s operations, however,
these emissions should be quantified and reported.
In this report, the following emissions are included as information items (emission quantities are reported in
Appendix B):
Scope 1 CO 2 emissions from flared methane from biogas emitted during wastewater treatment
Ozone depleting chemical used as refrigerants (R-22)
A common emission type that is categorized as an information item is carbon dioxide caused by the combustion of
biogenic fuels. Local governments will often burn fuels that are of biogenic origin (wood, landfill gas, organic solid
waste, biofuels, etc.) to generate power. Common sources of biogenic emissions are the combustion of landfill gas
from landfills or biogas from wastewater treatment plants, as well as the incineration of organic municipal solid
waste at incinerators.
Carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of biogenic fuels are not included in Scope 1 based on established
international principles. 20 These principles indicate that biogenic fuels (e.g., wood, biodiesel), if left to decompose
in the natural environment, would release CO 2 into the atmosphere, where it would then enter back into the natural
carbon cycle. Therefore, when wood or another biogenic fuel is combusted, the resulting CO 2 emissions are akin to
natural emissions and should therefore not be considered as human activity-generated emissions. The CH 4 and N 2 O
emissions, however, would not have occurred naturally and are therefore included as Scope 1 emissions.
A.2 Baseline Years
Part of the local government operations emissions inventory process requires selecting a “performance datum” with
which to compare current emissions, or a base year. Local governments should examine the range of data they have
over time and select a year that has the most accurate and complete data for all key emission sources. It is also
preferable to establish a base year several years in the past to be able to account for the emissions benefits of recent
actions. A local government’s emissions inventory should comprise all greenhouse gas emissions occurring during a
selected calendar year.
20 Methane and nitrous oxide emissions from biogenic fuels are considered Scope 1 stationary combustion emissions and are included in the
stationary combustion sections for the appropriate facilities.
2005 Daly City Government Operations Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory V