Page 1 A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR ENERGY PLANNING AND CO 2 EMISSIONS COUNTING IN URBAN AREAS Arnaud Chapuis, Gaëtan Cherix Centre de Recherches Energétiques et Municipales, CREM 1920 Martigny, Switzerland Massimiliano Capezzali, Hans Björn Püttgen Energy Center, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland Matthias Finger MIR, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland ABSTRACT The planning of energy supply systems for buildings in urban areas is a key-element in the reduction of energy consumption and greenhouse-gases (GHG) emissions. However, it also represents an increasingly complex task notably due to the emergence of new energy conversion technologies. The use of a framework based on a diagram representation of energy flows from the sources to the final consumption is a useful tool for energy planning endeavours, since it allows clarifying the analysis of improvement potentials along the energy chain. Swiss municipalities are deeply involved in sustainable energy solutions deployment and widely use energy planning methods to achieve their goal. Since they have at their disposal several financing instruments related to GHG or green electricity permits trading schemes for their energy projects, it is essential to perform an accurate accounting of GHG emissions in a specific urban area. The influence of using such trading schemes in urban energy project is presented in the second part of this paper, especially through a Swiss use case. INTRODUCTION Satisfying the demand for energy services in urban areas for residential, commercial and industrial activities leads to large resources consumption. The depletion of traditional fossil fuels sources, climate change and other environmental issues should lead our society to develop itself on new bases to assure its long-term durability. This scenario has led to the definition of sustainable development in the Brundtland Report [1] in 1987 as “a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Within this framework, cities worldwide are working to curb their dependence on fossil fuels and fight against climate change. These cities are implementing strategies mainly based on: energy savings through increased efficiency, use of renewable energy resources and urban energy planning. These measures systematically induce an increased complexity of