CASE STUDY PRESENTATION

Denmark's Climate Inventory for Local Climate Action

A shared data platform helps Danish municipalities build comparable greenhouse gas inventories and climate action plans.

Case Study
MitigationBehavior and capacityImplementation & operationsRegulation & governanceResource efficiency

Pool climate data, methods and costs in one trusted platform so every municipality can plan, compare and track emissions.

The big idea
  • 95 of 98 municipalities use it
  • Lower costs through shared systems
  • Comparable local emissions data
So what?
1

The Challenge

Danish municipalities play a central role in climate action, but many lack the resources to build and maintain robust emissions data systems. Without a shared approach, they risk using different assumptions, methods and data sources. That makes progress harder to compare and weakens the evidence base for local decisions.

2

The Plan

The plan was to replace fragmented local inventories with a shared data foundation for all municipalities. The service combines common methods, pooled investment, public transparency and secure municipal access for detailed analysis.

  1. Step 1

    National authorities, regions, municipalities and Realdania aligned around the need for better municipal climate data.

  2. Step 2

    Central and local datasets were brought together using a common greenhouse gas accounting methodology.

  3. Step 3

    The service translated data into municipal inventories with sector-level emissions and energy information.

  4. Step 4

    Municipalities used the results for targets, climate plans, political decisions and public communication.

  5. Step 5

    Users continued to refine methods, improve data quality and expand the service over time.

3

The Results

95 of 98

Danish municipalities use the inventory.

10+ years

Collaborative development period.

1

Common national data foundation.

3

Levels of governance linked: state, regions and municipalities.

The Climate Inventory has become a widely adopted basis for local climate planning in Denmark. It reduces duplicated effort, supports comparable reporting and helps municipalities track emissions over time. Its adoption shows how shared digital infrastructure can strengthen climate governance across levels of government.

4

Key Lessons

The case shows that climate data becomes useful when common methods, governance and financing are designed together. Shared infrastructure lowers the burden on smaller municipalities while improving quality, comparison and continuity.

  • Fragmented methods
  • High local data costs
  • Hard to compare progress
Before
  • Shared national data base
  • Lower cost per municipality
  • Comparable climate plans
After

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