Baseline year is the initial year in reference to which CO2 emission should be achieved by the end of 2020. Thus, the volume of emission reduction in 2020 is assessed in comparison with emission figures in the baseline year.
Unlike the recommendations provided in the SEAP Guidebook for European countries (for which mainly 1990 is the baseline year), Signatories from Eastern Partnership countries are recommended to take the latest year as the baseline one (not before 2000), which is the most illustrative in terms of reflection of the current economic situation and for which reliable statistical data can be collected.
The main reason for this is that local authorities in Eastern Partnership countries are frequently faced with problems in their search of reliable statistical data for compiling the Baseline Emission Inventory for 1990.
Another reason for not taking the baseline year applied in the European countries as the benchmark is the fact that the cities/towns willing to include industrial sector into their SEAPs/SECAPs cannot do this, since the majority of post-Soviet countries lived through a considerable economic crisis in the 90ies, due to which the level of their industrialization at that time may not correspond to the current level.
Some local authorities paying attention, inter alia, to proximity of 2020 and, as the result, to insufficient time interval for comprehensive implementation of CO2 emission reduction measures may set the tasks of emission reduction for a longer period (for instance, by 2030). In this case they should set some interim goals for 2020 in order to ensure comparability with other signatories.
