A Continuable Greenhouse Gas Emission Survey Method for Small Municipalities

Abstract

In order for Japan to achieve carbon zero by 2050, it is necessary to survey greenhouse gas emissions at the municipal level, and to realize and continue a situation in which the results are reflected in the decarbonization PDCA cycle. However, most municipalities think it would be a large-scale survey, so they do not carry it out. This study presents the following conditions for a survey that can be continued by local governments: 1) independent of survey scale, 2) thorough simplification of survey items, and 3) don't stick to random sampling. The method presented in this report, which is a stratified sampling method, consists of a mixture of groups (strata) surveying the total population and groups surveying samples. Since the sample survey layer assumes a normal distribution of the population, the accuracy of the estimation error can be estimated in intervals. It also shows how to calculate the number of surveys when applying this survey method to small municipalities (cities with less than 50,000 inhabitants). Finally, an example of a survey applied to Minamata City is presented to show the accuracy of the survey.