Philippine E-Journals

Sectoral Assessment of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emission in Barangay Bineng, La Trinidad, Benguet

Sayrha Fe A. Gaya | Marissa R. Parao

 

Abstract:

The Climate Change Act or the Republic Act of 9729 mandates the Local Government Unit (LGU) to prepare a Local Climate Change Action Plan. Aside from preparing the adaptation and mitigation plan, one crucial activity that LGUs need to undertake to reduce emission effectively is to undertake GHG inventory. If community GHG is not measured, it will be difficult to measure and monitor the effectiveness of any action plan. This study identifies and quantifies the emission sources of GHGs (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) in the major sectors (stationary energy, electricity consumption, transportation, waste, agriculture, and forestry and land use/land cover (LULC)) that occurred in 2018 at Barangay Bineng, La Trinidad, Benguet. Emission and sequestration were established using an excel-based tool developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] (2006), the Government of the Philippines, and the United Nations Development Project [GOP and UNDP] (2011). Results showed that the major LULC change in Bineng was the increase in open forest and brushland area. Barangay Bineng emits 2,964.53 tCO2e generated from stationary energy, electricity consumption, agriculture, waste, transportation, and forest conversion to other land use. Despite the GHG released in the area, the remaining open forest and shrubland that increased in the area played a dominant role in absorbing emitted GHG with an absorption potential of 6,104.54 tCO2e per year. Thus, barangay Bineng is still a carbon sink. Nevertheless, the LGU must regulate the various GHG emitting activities.