Charlottesville Emissions Reports

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventories support the work of the Climate Protection Program, established to pursue the City’s commitments to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with its community-wide activities.

Emissions inventories measure and track community-wide greenhouse gas emissions associated with activities within the City of Charlottesville’s jurisdictional boundary. Inventories are compiled according to established reporting protocol standards. GHG Emission Inventories are identified by the year in which activity occurred. The time it takes for data from that year to become available often means that there is a ~2 year delay before an inventory dataset can be fully compiled. For example, the 2016 inventory was compiled and completed in 2018. 

Charlottesville's inventory data was first collected in 2008 for inventory years 2000 and 2006, and then again in 2012 for inventory years 2009 and 2011. Data has since been collected annually starting with inventory year 2016. 

Inventory years 2000, 2006, 2009, and 2011 were calculated according to the US Reporting Protocols. Beginning with the 2016 inventory, per the City’s Global Covenant of Mayors commitment, data began to be calculated according to the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories (GPC). Opportunities to improve data collection methods are incorporated as they arise and are applied retrospectively when appropriate. 

Charlottesville annually submits reports to CDP - the reporting platform used by the Global Covenant of Mayors Commitment - including GHG emissions inventory data. Submissions are available on the CDP Open Data Portal.

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  1. Inventory Data
  2. 2018 Report (2000, 2011, 2016 DATA Years)
  3. 2012 Report (2000, 2006, 2009, 2011 Data Years)
  4. 2008 Report (2000 & 2006 Data Years)

The City began collecting annual GHG emission inventory data in 2018, beginning with inventory year 2016. This data is measured against the City's 2011 baseline year.

 Some key takeaways:

  •  The proportional contribution of GHG emissions across sectors in Charlottesville remains the same year-over-year. Approximately 90% of emissions come from energy used to power our buildings and from transportation. These emissions are split nearly equally across the residential, commercial, and transportation sectors.
  •  Charlottesville's overall GHG emissions continue to decrease, with decreases being seen in almost every sector annually.
  •  In 2016, Charlottesville had achieved 23% emissions reductions, about half of its 45% by 2030 goal. In 2019, Charlottesville reached 30% emissions reduction - 2/3 of the way towards its 2030 goal. 

Charlottesville GHG Emissions Inventory Data:


Municipal GHG Emissions Inventory Data:

The data below represents the GHG emissions from Charlottesville's Municipal operations, which includes Charlottesville local government and Charlottesville City Schools. 

Please note:  There is a partial overlap between the data sets below and the (communitywide) Charlottesville GHG Emissions Inventory data listed above. Municipal data for Buildings & Facilities as well as for Street Lights & Traffic Signals are included in the community inventory as part of the Commercial Sector. Municipal Vehicle Fleet data is calculated based on total fuel consumption, which is used both within the City boundaries and in other jurisdictions. The community inventory's Transportation Sector is calculated by vehicle counts within the City, which would include City fleet vehicles. We are unable to determine how much of the City's fleet fuel is used within the City. We are also unable to determine how many of the community vehicle counts represent City fleet vehicles. As such, we recognize that there is an overlap between the community Transportation Sector emissions and the City Fleet Fuel emissions, but we are unable to identify how much overlap there is.