Climate Change Monitoring

The plan is to continue producing an annual monitoring report on the Climate Action Plan, which will summarize the information on the platform and provide additional details on selected topics. 

The emissions inventory—and thus the greenhouse gas balance—in ClimateView is structuredin accordance with theGlobal Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Inventories (GPC) and is divided into the sectors of buildings, industry, and transportation. This structure ensures that the inventory complies with international standards for emissions accounting and enables a systematic approach to the categorization and reporting of emissions.

The previous sectoral breakdown in the Climate Action Plan (KAP) and earlier monitoring reports complies with the German accounting standard for municipalities (BISKO). The structures of the two standards can be linked as follows:

An emission factor indicates how much greenhouse gas is produced by a specific activity or per unit—for example, per liter of gasoline, per kilowatt-hour of electricity, or per kilometer driven. It makes it easier to calculate CO₂ emissions and compare different activities. Example: The emission factor for diesel describes how much CO₂ is released when one liter of diesel is burned—this allows us to calculate, for example, how much CO₂ a passenger car emits after traveling a certain number of kilometers. Using the emission factor for electricity, on the other hand, one can also calculate how much CO₂ a battery-powered car emits when it has traveled the same distance as the diesel car. 

In Germany, emission factors are primarily calculated and regularly published by government agencies such as the Federal Environment Agency and scientific institutes.

There are several reasons for the slight differences—each amounting to about 2 percent of total emissions. First, ClimateView’s emissions inventory allows for a more detailed breakdown of energy consumption from fossil fuels for heating. This results in a more nuanced application of emission factors. Furthermore, the calculation of emissions in the transportation/freight sector was retroactively adjusted to the ClimateView standard for all reports starting in 2019. Regarding the breakdown of energy consumption across individual sectors, the municipal utilities were able to provide more accurate data retroactively starting in 2019 for district heating and natural gas. Finally, subsequent adjustments to individual emission factors frequently lead to retroactive corrections to the emissions inventory.

In general, individual calculation methods were replaced by standardized ClimateView procedures wherever possible.

The ClimateView emissions inventory captures the total greenhouse gas emissions of a municipality across the building, transportation, and industrial sectors over the course of a year. The annual greenhouse gas balance is calculated using the data from the emissions inventory. By analyzing emissions inventories over several years, it is possible to track the trends in greenhouse gas emissions in Jena and thus identify the success or existing gaps in climate protection efforts.

Carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂-eq) are a unit of measurement used to compare the climate impact of various greenhouse gases. It is not only carbon dioxide (CO₂) that harms the climate, but also other gases such as methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O). However, these gases have a stronger impact than CO₂.

To make these gases more easily comparable, scientists calculate how much CO₂ would be required to have the same climate impact. The unit of measurement for this result is called CO₂-eq.

In 2021, the City Council resolved that Jena should become climate-neutral by 2035. This means that Jena will emit only as many greenhouse gases as can be offset by natural sinks—such as forests—or other technical measures.

However, calculations underlying the Climate Action Plan have already shown that, despite ambitious targets and consistent implementation of the proposed measures, Jena will likely still emit energy-related residual emissions of approximately 100,000 metric tons of CO₂-eq in 2035.

At the same time, greenhouse gas accounting currently does not take into account non-energy-related emissions from land use, forestry, waste management, and consumer behavior. For these accounting areas, there is still a lack of reliable, Jena-specific data and uniform calculation standards. 

When transferring the individual measures and target assumptions of the Climate Action Plan into the ClimateView platform, it became clear that binding specific target values for the year 2035 had not yet been defined for all areas. Furthermore, it is not possible to estimate the projected emission reductions for all climate protection measures. This applies in particular to measures that the city cannot implement directly on its own.  

To project future greenhouse gas reductions in municipalities, ClimateView has developed a specialized impact logic that transparently illustrates this gap in achieving the targeted emission reductions.

As part of the first evaluation of the Climate Action Plan, scheduled for late 2026, the target assumptions and climate protection measures for Jena will be further developed using ClimateView’s impact logic, with the aim of closing the gap as much as possible.

Transition elements are universal building blocks in ClimateView that describe specific climate protection options. At the heart of every transition element is a shift from one activity to another that fulfills the same need. Each shift is quantifiable and represents a way to reduce emissions and resource consumption.

Examples of transition elements:

• Switching from natural gas heating systems to heat pumps in single-family homes
• Shifting from combustion-engine cars to cycling and walking

In ClimateView, the measures in the Climate Action Plan are linked to transition elements in order to estimate their contribution to emissions reduction.

The concept ofthe personalcarbon footprint was popularized by the oil company BP in 2004. Through a marketing campaign, the company introduced a calculator for determining one’s personalcarbon footprint. In doing so, it effectively shifted the blame for greenhouse gas emissions onto individual people or the general population, diverting attention from the responsibility of oil companies. 

Effective climate protection requires global, comprehensive solutions. Nevertheless, every single person can contribute to climate protection. With the Federal Environment Agency’s CO₂ calculator, you can get an overview in just a few minutes of the areas of your personal life where you can still make adjustments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.