Extending the attributional-consequential distinction to provide a categorical framework for greenhouse gas accounting methods
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Brander2016.docx (1.201Mb)
Date
29/06/2016Author
Brander, Matthew Cuchulain
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Abstract
As part of the response to the threat of dangerous climate change a variety of
methods have emerged for measuring greenhouse gas emissions to the
atmosphere, assigning responsibility for those emissions, and informing decisions
on mitigation actions. Many of these greenhouse gas accounting methods have
developed in semi-isolated fields of practice, and this raises questions about how
these different methods relate to each other, and whether they form ‘families’ of
conceptually similar approaches.
A useful distinction has developed within the field of life cycle assessment (LCA)
between attributional and consequential methods, and this thesis explores the
possibility of extending that distinction to categorise other forms of greenhouse gas
accounting. Broadly, attributional methods are inventories of emissions/removals
for a defined inventory boundary, while consequential methods aim to estimate
system-wide changes in emissions that result from a decision or action.
This thesis suggests that national greenhouse gas inventories, city inventories,
corporate inventories, and attributional LCA are all attributional in nature, while
project-level assessments, policy-level assessments, and consequential LCA are all
consequential in nature. The potential benefits from creating this categorical
framework include ensuring that individual methods are conceptually coherent,
transposing lessons between methods of the same categorical type, and ensuring
that the correct type of method is used for a given purpose.
These various benefits are explored conceptually through the analysis of existing
greenhouse gas accounting standards, and also empirically with the use of a
bioenergy case study. The findings suggest that the attributional-consequential
distinction is highly useful for conceptualising and developing greenhouse gas
accounting methods, which is important, ultimately, for addressing dangerous
climate change.
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