Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory

I developed a methodology for estimating greenhouse gas emissions from passenger and commercial vehicles for every city or township in the Twin Cities region. Data implemented include aggregated, anonymized location-based services data provided by StreetLight Data, the Environmental Protection Agency’s MOVES model, and MnDOT’s vehicle classification data. The resulting data is implemented in the Council’s larger greenhouse gas inventory, which quantifies emissions from sources including energy, transportation, agriculture, and waste management.

The data is available in our interactive tool, Twin Cities Greenhouse Gas Inventory

In May 2021, the Council was awarded two badges from the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, in part, for work done with this tool and the GHG Strategy Planning Tool.

You can find more information on the Council’s website here.

Climate change is occurring all around the world, including right here in the Twin Cities region. Minnesota has already experienced more extreme rainfall and warmer winters due to climate change, and more changes are on the way. The good news is that local jurisdictions can take meaningful action now to address climate change.

The climate is changing due to human activities which release greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere and cause average temperatures to rise. Many human activities emit carbon dioxide, as well as even more powerful greenhouse gases like methane, nitrous oxide, and others. Each of these gases exist naturally in the environment, but human-built systems for energy, transportation, agriculture, and waste management are responsible for releasing climate-altering quantities of these gases.