A Pathway to Carbon Neutrality
This book reveals causes of the GHG emission accounting practice failure over the last several decades, describes evolution of new tenets of the accounting and remaining tasks, and suggests a new comprehensive integrated accounting in the form of protocol.
The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report calls for net zero CO2 emissions by 2050 to limit warming to 1.5 degree C. As a result, many countries, cities, and industries are putting forward their greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction actions and commitments. But can the countries, cities, and industries meet these ambitious decarbonization goals without a reliable GHG inventory? This book tries to answer this question.
It has been argued that there is a need to include LCA and consumption/needs-based GHG emissions as a complimentary indicator to the current approach of production-based GHG accounting emissions. As a shifting of the focus of accounting system after the Paris Agreement, consumption/needs-based approach is newly focused on a more broader accounting approach for NDCs and LDCs with a vision of all of society approach. Traditional national inventory approach to GHG emission accounting has been severely criticized as being too production process-oriented, sector-based approach, less transparent, a lack of public participation, no considerations for human needs and human factors.
Kwi-Gon Kim's main research interests are in the field of smart urban eco-development and climate change, also including aspects of convergence of human needs/consumption and climate change.
He has obtained his Ph.D. in Planning Studies at University College London (UCL) and taught for 32 years at Seoul National University. He is currently Professor Emeritus at the University.
He has been very active in various fields and a frequent speaker at international organizations, including UNDP, UNESCO, UNEP, UNFCCC and UN-HABITAT. He, as a President of the International Urban Training Center (IUTC) in partnership with UN-HABITAT, developed a series of volume of Climate Smart Eco-Cities as training materials. He has been a Co-Chair, UNFCCC/UGIH Consumption/Needs-based GHG Emission Accounting Working Group.
He has been an author/co-authors of five Springer books, including Low-Carbon Smart Cities (2018, Springer), Planning Climate Smart and Wise Cities (2022, Springer), and Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Climate Change Adaptation (Forthcoming, Springer).
Book Title: LCA and Consumption/Needs-Based GHG Accounting for Climate Action
Book Subtitle: A Pathway to Carbon Neutrality
Authors: Kwi-Gon Kim
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-75468-5
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental Science, Earth and Environmental Science (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-75467-8Published: 07 February 2025
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-75470-8Due: 21 February 2026
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-75468-5Published: 06 February 2025
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXIV, 356
Number of Illustrations: 21 b/w illustrations, 190 illustrations in colour
Topics: Environmental Management, Geography, general, Monitoring/Environmental Analysis, Analytical Chemistry, Climate, general, Social Sciences, general
