SERCAN KIRIK

Significance of the Local Government Contributions on Carbon Footprint Calculations: Merzifon Municipality

Abstract

In order to implement the Global Protocol for Community-scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories (GPC) guidelines, being the most comprehensive protocol for Carbon footprint (CF) calculations of a county, four stakeholders, government, municipality, energy distribution companies and a competent and independent consultant party with a team of experts on calculating and reporting CF, share the burden. As the main stakeholder, the government has to calculate and publish national carbon coefficients. Subsequently, the government should create local guidelines for carbon emission calculations and require emission reports and related data periodically from municipalities. Data collection and ensuring data quality are significant problems arising in CF calculations; initial phase. The electricity and natural gas companies should provide consumption data for various consumer categories such as residential, commercial, industrial, and NGOs. The municipality, which is at the common point of the stakeholders, has a vital role in collecting the relevant data. Among the tasks that municipalities should carry out, the most important ones are to gather data from energy distributors to keep a record of the sales and consumption of other fuel types, such as coal, wood, fuel oil, and LPG, that are not distributed by the main energy suppliers, to inspect the sales and usage of fertilizers, pesticides, etc. in agriculture, to collect and compile solid and liquid waste compositions. One of the major difficulties encountered in the CF calculation studies performed with Merzifon Municipality is that there were no declared and reliable national carbon coefficients.. Another major problem was the data provided by electricity and natural gas companies was incomplete and chaotic. In the Merzifon carbon footprint calculation case, the competent, trained, and dedicated personnel, aware of the importance of the subject, played an impeccable role in the fast and efficient execution of this project.

Biography

Ongoing PhD at Hitit University Graduate Education Institute, Department of Business Administration. Started my business life as Project Coordinator at MBC Renewable Energy company. Worked as an office staff in Merzifon Municipality Strategy Development Directorate until January 2019. In January 2019, Continued my duty as a contracted economist with a title change. As of April 2019, Working as Strategy Development Manager in Merzifon Municipality. Experienced in project management, national and international grants and funds, strategic planning, renewable energy and finance.