The French Development Agency (AFD) is supporting the capacity and capability building for Greenhouse Gas accounting for transport projects in the Philippines through a project connected with the current initiatives on Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). Part of their engagement is the development of a tool for assessing carbon footprints of transport projects that can easily be used by officials and staff involved in evaluation work. Consultation seminars were conducted last July with various agencies and particularly the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC). And technology transfer is being undertaken through the National Center for Transportation Studies of the University of the Philippines Diliman, which will also be tasked with sharing the knowledge and providing training for the use of the tool for other users as well. A series of trainings were recently conducted by the consultant, Carbone 4, a Paris-based firm that was engaged by AFD for the project.

Julien Blanc of Carbone 4, the firm appointed by AFD to develop the GHG accounting tool, explains the features of the software.

NCTS Fellows, staff and graduate students participated in Day 1 of the training. Days 2 and 3 involved participants from various government agencies invited for the 1 day training.

Everyone was required to have a computer to have hands-on experience on using the tool with exercises provided by Julien.

In certain cases, Julien had to help out when some features did not work on some of the computers or when some participants had different results from what was expected from the exercises.

The tool is MS Excel-based and employs macros for calculations and to produce the graphs illustrating outputs such as fuel efficiency profiles for vehicles.

The tool is not yet completed as there are still features to be included but it is already a working version that allowed us to input values and manipulate the tool for familiarity. The tool was developed using MS Excel and employs macros for calculations and the production of graphs to illustrate outputs such as comparative fuel efficiency profiles for vehicles having different engines. The tool should be compatible with computers running the Windows or OS-X (Mac) systems.

–