The project assisted two metropolitan planning organizations (MPO), the Capital District Transportation Committee (CDTC) and the Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council (ITCTC), in conducting greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories and policy testing through the application of a strategic planning tool called VisionEval Rapid Policy Assessment Tool (VERPAT). The consultant assisted MPO staff in creating all input files, installing the software, and calibrating it to their adopted travel demand models. The consultant also provided training on using the tool and testing five policy scenarios. The MPOs ran VERPAT for each policy scenario and analyzed the results. The project demonstrated that VERPAT is a useful tool for MPOs in analyzing the impact of various policy initiatives on regional greenhouse gas emissions.

The GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard helps companies and other organizations to identify, calculate, and report GHG emissions. It is designed to set the standard for accurate, complete, consistent, relevant and transparent accounting and reporting of GHG emissions.

This book describes guidelines prepared by the U.S. Country Studies Program for the evaluation of options to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. Country Studies Program developed these guidelines in collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to provide developing countries and countries with economies in transition with reference materials for national mitigation assessments. Over 50 countries participating in the program have used the guidelines, which have been refined to reflect their comments. The guidelines delineate a step-wise methodology for evaluating greenhouse gas mitigation options for the energy and non-energy sectors and describe the applications of common analytical tools. The U.S. Country Studies Program uses these guidelines in conjunction with intensive training workshops and follow up technical assistance during the lifetime of each country's study. The program uses similar reference materials to assist counties with their greenhouse gas emission inventories and evaluations of climate change vulnerability and adaptive responses. These guidelines serve three purposes: to assist countries in making decisions about the scope and methodology for mitigation assessments; to provide countries with guidance and step-by-step instructions on each element of a mitigation assessment; and to help countries determine which analytical tools are best suited to their needs and describe procedures for applying these tools. This book describes the application of the most common and readily available methods and analytical tools. Countries are encouraged, where appropriate, to use their own methods.

"Both the public and private sectors are grappling with decisions regarding policies that will lead to reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Moving Cooler analyzes and assesses the effectiveness and costs of almost 50 transportation strategies for reducing GHG emissions, as well as evaluates combinations of those strategies. The findings of this study can help decision makers coordinate and shape effective approaches to reducing GHG emissions at all levels - national, regional, and local - while also meeting broader transportation objectives." --Book Jacket.

The objective of NCHRP Project 20-24(64) was to provide a factual basis for judging the merits of alternative methods that state departments of transportation (DOTs) and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) can use for managing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation. The project was undertaken to help policy makers to understand (a) how these alternative approaches to GHG emissions would affect states and metropolitan areas, (b) what approaches may be most effective for evaluating mobile-source GHG emission-management strategies, and (c) what particular tools are available to support implementation of these alternative approaches. The report is presented in five sections. Section 1, Introduction, provides background information, discusses the purpose and scope of the study, explains the study process, and presents the report organization. Section 2, Overarching Options for Establishing Transportation Requirements that Involve Targets, discusses several overarching considerations associated with any requirement that involves setting targets to address GHG emissions in transportation planning/programming. Section 3, Assessments of Alternative Policy Mechanisms for Reducing Transportation GHGs, identifies and describes several policy mechanisms that involve setting targets, along with requirements that might be implemented in addition to or instead of target-based requirements. Section 4, Implications of Alternative Targets on Sample States and MPOs, contains an analysis of a sample of states and metropolitan areas examining the estimated GHG emissions reductions that would be required to meet alternative targets. Section 5, Analysis Tools and Techniques to Support Implementation of Policy Mechanisms, reviews the availability, strengths, and limitations of existing tools that may be needed to meet requirements, identifies gaps, and discusses the potential implications of these gaps.

On July 20, 2006, in New York City, Resources for the Future convened a workshop of stakeholders and state officials engaged in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) together with experts on various aspects of using auctions. The workshop provided technical assistance to states for the development of a plan to satisfy the requirement for an allocation of emissions allowances to benefit consumers or for strategic energy purposes. The workshop included an overview of auction theory, a panel on concerns of stakeholders about using an allowance auction in the RGGI, a panel on the motivations for and lessons from using auctions in other applications, and one on past experiences with auctions of emissions allowances. This workshop summary presents the main ideas presented by speakers and the audience. The summary concludes by drawing on the discussion to compile a suggested roadmap identifying steps for planners in moving toward implementation of the auction.