Identifying important characteristics of municipal carbon footprints

Local climate action has been identified as a vital contributor to global mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This paper focuses on the GHG emissions resulting from the provision of local public services, illustrated through the Carbon Footprint (CF) indicator. The CF of all 429 Norwegian municipalities is calculated and compared to variables of interest. Results show that the CF changes significantly depending on size and wealth. Small and/or wealthy municipalities tend to have a much higher CF per capita compared to more populated and/or less wealthy cities. While wealth and CF relate very well linearly, increased population is only beneficial up to a certain size. Results indicate that the CF per capita increases in municipalities with more than ∼50,000 inhabitants, thus indicating a possible ideal size of municipalities to achieve the optimal municipal CF.