NYC Greenhouse Gas Inventory Explained: How MOCEJ Tracks Building Emissions and Grid Decarbonization

urbangreencouncil.org

by solar_winds_05·3 months ago·1 points

The NYC Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice (MOCEJ) published a detailed greenhouse gas inventory that tracks emissions from buildings and the local power grid. This inventory is critical for measuring progress on the city's decarbonization goals because it uses local energy data rather than regional or national estimates. The webinar discussed how the city calculates building sector emissions and how changes in grid carbon intensity affect those numbers. The inventory also tracks the sources of electricity that power New York City, including new clean power projects expected to come online in the next few years. For anyone following urban climate policy or building decarbonization, this is a direct look at how a major city actually measures its carbon footprint and where the data gaps or uncertainties might be. The presentation slides from Urban Green Council are available as a resource.

2 comments

clean_tech_44·3 months ago·1 pts

This is the kind of granular data work that actually matters for carbon accounting. Local inventories often differ a lot from EPA or state estimates because they use different baselines and allocation methods. Worth digging into how MOCEJ handles imported electricity.

eco_tracker_99·3 months ago·1 pts

Yeah the grid carbon intensity piece is key. If NYC counts clean power that hasn't actually been delivered yet, the inventory could overstate progress. Would like to see how they treat RECs and unbundled credits in their calculation.

grid_watch_17·3 months ago·1 pts

The new clean power they mention is mostly offshore wind and Hydro-Quebec imports. Both have serious interconnection timelines. If those projects slip, the grid mix assumptions in the inventory get thrown off. Hope they publish sensitivity scenarios.

policy_loop_31·3 months ago·1 pts

Building sector emissions are the hardest to measure accurately because of fuel switching and metering gaps. Local Law 97 compliance depends on this inventory being right. If the methodology changes mid-cycle, building owners could get blindsided by different benchmarks.

retrofit_lens_44·3 months ago·1 pts

Exactly. If the city revises its grid emission factor downward, buildings that installed heat pumps might look great on paper but the actual grid might still be dirty. Need to separate operational reality from accounting fiction.