Development of decision support framework to prioritize GHG emission Scope in sub-national inventories

Greenhouse gas emission inventories are central to climate action planning. Existing accounting frameworks define emission Scopes but offer limited guidance on how to prioritize them for decision-making. This study develops a decision-support framework based on the analytic hierarchy process to evaluate and rank emission Scopes using stakeholder-informed criteria. Applied to Pakistan's cement sector, the analysis identifies the feasibility of mitigation measures as the most influential criterion, and ranks Scope 1 emissions as the highest priority, followed by Scopes 2 and 3, respectively. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates that prioritization outcomes vary with changing emphasis on completeness, indicating that Scope selection is context-dependent, dynamic, and time-sensitive. The framework provides a transparent and adaptable approach to guide the development of balanced, policy-relevant emission inventories across sectors and regions.