A manual for calculating greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits for GEF transportation projects was presented by the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) at the 39th GEF Council in November 2010 (GEF/C.39/Inf.16) and has now been posted on the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) website. This is a work prepared on behalf of the STAP by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) with technical support from the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities and Cambridge Systematics, Inc, and financial support from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Climate Works Foundation. The lack of robust GHG emissions accounting including monitoring and reporting of transportation projects is one of the key barriers in supporting sustainable low-carbon transport globally.  This has also been a challenging task for the GEF as the reliable and scientifically valid methodology and guidance to project managers and often the lack of capacity at the project level impeded the development and impact assessment of many transport projects submitted for GEF funding.  The Manual addresses these needs and provides a step-by-step guide for development of baseline, impact estimation and calibration of transport projects across a wide range of interventions including transport efficiency improvement, public transport, non-motorized transport, transport demand managements, and comprehensive transport strategies.

At the heart of methodologies included in the Manual are a series of spreadsheet models that streamline and provide a consistent framework for calculating GHG impact called the Transportation Emissions Evaluation Model for Projects (TEEMP).  Eleven specific TEEMP models are included with the manual:  bikes sharing, bikeways, bus rapid transit, employer based commute strategies, eco-driving, expressways, metro, “pay as you drive”, walkability improvement, parking, and railway.  To download the draft Manual (Version 1.1) and TEEMP modules, please click here. The toolbox also has capacity to estimate first order transportation air pollution emissions impacts for nitrogen oxides and particulates. ITDP and its partners, including the ADB and IDB, are working to further test the tools to various cities and projects, improve model documentation and user-friendliness, and enhance the capacity of the tools to reflect wide-ranging local conditions with an enlarged set of default factors. These sketch tools should be helpful to those developing Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Strategies (NAMAs) in the transport sector, especially in countries where existing data and models are scarce or of low quality.