The spatial politics of an urban carbon accounting standard

Recent efforts to disseminate a coordinated, international standard for urban carbon accounting reflect new interests to reframe urban environments as central to global climate goals. Advocates emphasize how local policy based on standardized accounting methods will be more effective and that global knowledge over climate progress will be enhanced. As part of a decentralized international regime, more standardized measurement tools to quantify the effects of local action are seen as central to building the legitimacy of local climate action. However, others express concerns that accountability to global metrics undermines the democratic nature of local action and that the resources required to compile more complex and comprehensive carbon inventories exceed the benefits. This article examines these debates through a spatial analysis of a new urban carbon accounting standard, the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Initiatives (GPC). Two key spatial dimensions are interrogated: the work of the GPC in locating carbon in territorially defined space, and the effects of a common standard in making carbon mobile across geographies and deterritorializing the urban environment as part of an evolving global climate regime. I argue that examining the GPC through a spatial lens makes legible how new dynamics of power and authority are being expressed over urban environments. Following an analysis on the GPC's territorial accounting method, I turn to explore the importance of new scalar relations in elevating the role of urban environments in global politics. Particular attention is given to the popular urban measurement and reporting discourses shared by international urban policy networks that have helped coordinate new global compliance expectations for local governments. The article concludes by discussing important implications to understanding the effects of a standardized measurement framework and considerations for future research.