The Challenge
Understand Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions
To develop a comprehensive written report on the City of Atlanta’s greenhouse gas inventories that can provide analysis of the data to be used to support policy decisions to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as to provide updates to the public on the status of the City in working to achieve its emissions reductions targets.
The Results
An actionable inventory
Through this project, Saikawa and her student developed a greenhouse gas inventory summary sheet for the City of Atlanta.
This project was beneficial to the City of Atlanta since it helped them get back on track with doing more regular greenhouse gas emissions inventories. By having this resource and being able to make it publicly available and internally available will help them to focus on certain programming. Mitigating climate change in the City of Atlanta, especially how it relates to emissions from commercial buildings were assumed not to have any impacts. So this has helped to dispel a lot of notions as to what the effects of emissions are for the city.
Saikawa found the involvement of herself and her student highly useful for her research and teaching since she used this dataset in her class. One of her students developed a video as to how Atlanta could reduce emissions, perhaps another useful tool for the city. For students, Saikawa says that being involved in such community science projects as this “…is a great exercise to see the data and potential scenarios to how to mitigate [climate change]. [It is]…great to have the data and see real solutions.”
Saikawa says that she would be happy to share the work. She is interested in exploring a common and easily replicable format with Thriving Earth and other cities that have or might be interested in doing greenhouse gas inventories. Specifically, it could be a very nice way for students to be involved from different parts of the country in a similar manner. For instance, when she went to UN climate negotiations, they had a project through Zoom for students to join in.
O’Neil concurs that it would be the type of project that might be scalable through another university and local partnership. City of Atlanta is much better equipped than the greater Atlanta region, so there is an opportunity to share further.
Project Overview
The City of Atlanta, GA is known for southern gentility, a world-class music scene–and 21,000 tons of environmental waste. In spite of its charms, the city’s combination of air pollution and atmospheric chemicals makes it the most toxic city in the country. Increasingly, the city is joining the ranks of many cities attempting to address climate change at the local level.
Urban sprawl and the ensuing greater number of cars on the road are affecting the health of Atlanta’s citizens. The City has collected data on emissions for the and completes an annual greenhouse gas inventory but hasn’t yet had a comprehensive written report on its greenhouse gas inventories that can provide analysis of the data collected for the inventory that can be used support policy decisions to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as to provide updates to the public on the status of the City in working to achieve its emissions reductions targets. Therefore, Atlanta’s Mayor’s Office of Resilience is focusing its efforts on putting together a comprehensive framework for reporting annually on its greenhouse gas inventories.
PROJECT SPONSOR
Project Team
About Us
The Community Science Exchange is a platform led by a coalition of partner societies, launched for elevating, sharing, and expanding the reach of science performed by, for, and with communities.
Contact
communitysci@agu.org