Local authorities play a key role in tackling climate change as the ground implementers of national greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation policies. They are expected to measure, report and verify data on city-level GHG emissions in a credible and sustained manner by referring to national and global protocols and methodologies, coordinating data collection responsibilities among multiple municipality departments and with external stakeholders, and drawing technical support from external stakeholders.

A replicable model for building a local authority’s capacity in GHG accounting was demonstrated by Phitsanulok City, Thailand, which was trained to collect reasonably complete data for an inaugural municipal-level GHG inventory by: (a) establishing a cross department working group, which is led by skilled managerial and working-level coordinators, (b) exchanging experience with a peer municipality (Nonthaburi Municipality), (c) flexibly adjusting pre-existing administrative and accounting procedures for GHG data collection, and (d) Developing an in-house energy use reporting system.