Frequently Asked Questions How much does it cost to use CURB? CURB tool is a free tool with no licensing fees. The tool has been designed to be simple enough to use in-house, requiring little or no external consulting costs. Cities may choose to hire experts depending on local data and resource availability within individual cities. How long does it take to conduct a CURB analysis? The time required to run CURB will depend on the extent of analyses required. For a simple inventory with available data, analyses can be completed in a few hours. For holistic action planning across all sectors, analyses may require a few days to a week of time, excluding internal coordination and data collection. Once analyses are complete, cities may use CURB on an ongoing basis for progress monitoring and other communications-related activities. What type of support is available for CURB? There are a number of ways to learn more about CURB. Users are welcome to learn more about the CURB tool and its functionality through training videos on the CURB website. Additionally:  The World Bank is available to provide technical support upon request. Please email curb@worldbank.org for more information.  C40 Cities are requested to contact the Measurement and Planning Team for any support at measurement@c40.org.  Any cities committed to the Global Covenant of Mayors can send questions to info@globalcovenantofmayors.org. Can I see the proxy data used within CURB? Yes. Detailed proxy data is available in the “Database” module of CURB. How granular is the proxy and default data? CURB is equipped with emissions and activity data for all regions across the globe. National data is available at an almost global scale, and city-level data is provided at a regional level. For each sector, users can view a list of cities and countries for which proxy data is provided and select the data that is most appropriate. Is CURB’s default data U.S.-specific or is it global? The emissions and energy data in CURB is global, with locally-applicable data, where available. Activity data for the six urban sectors is typically specific to cities or countries. Financial data for infrastructure and operational costs are based on European and North American data, which are calibrated for different national economic development level cohorts. The calibration is based on the typical labor costs and material costs in the relevant countries, which is sourced from national agencies. Does CURB take behavior changes and policy uptake into account? CURB evaluates the emission and energy-use reduction benefits of low-carbon technologies selected by the user. CURB is agnostic to specific policy mechanisms used to achieve the planned actions and their respective uptake. Since every local context is unique, it is up to the user to determine the level of technology deployment based on the anticipated behavior change and uptake that a policy is expected to achieve. What are the assumptions behind CURB’s modeling? CURB allows you to modify most parameters and assumptions used for modeling. These parameters can be accessed through the Advanced User Settings sub-module in the Settings module. In addition, a detailed methodology guide is available so cities can understand how energy, emissions, and cost impacts are calculated. Note that at this time financial parameters (cost assumptions) cannot be modified. Future versions will likely have this functionality. What training and resources are available? Cities can refer to the CURB user guide, methodology guides and training videos. The World Bank, C40, and Compact of Mayors may provide support arrangements for their associated cities. Does a city need an emissions inventory to use CURB? No! Cities can input their available sectoral data. Where this is not available, cities may use CURB’s proxy data. However, if an emissions inventory is conducted using the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Emissions Inventory framework, then it can be readily uploaded into the tool. How is CURB different from existing low carbon planning tools? There are a number of features that sets CURB apart. The CURB tool is free, city-specific for both developed and developing countries, integrated across key urban sectors, forecasts over a user-specified timeframe, provides financial analysis, is equipped with globally comprehensive proxy data, provides attractive graphics and charts for easy reporting, and is user friendly and intuitive. This allows cities to effectively plan and develop scenarios in-house, without the need for external consultant support. What is included in implementation cost and payback period? Implementation cost includes technology costs and installation costs associated with labor and materials. Payback period considers the number of years required to recover the implementation costs based on any revenue generated or avoided costs from the investment. How should financial analyses be used? Financial analysis in the CURB tool is intended to support users in conducting an initial assessment of potential options. The CURB team recommends conducting independent project-level financial analysis to inform investment decisions. CURB costs estimates uses the best publicly available financial data at a national level and additional source from AECOM cost specialists. Since CURB cost estimates are conducted at a high geographic level, local factors such as fuel and technology prices, taxation and tariffs on imported goods and materials, interest rates, financing mechanisms, and inflation are not accounted for. These factors are context specific and vary greatly across action areas and sectors. Additionally, since CURB evaluates a wide range of actions in different sectors, calculations are based on the availability of cost data and other information, which vary across sectors. For example, in the Building Energy sector, Energy Efficiency and Fuel Switching actions use detailed cost data (capital and labor) from U.S. Department of Energy cost databases that is suitable for project level analysis. In the Transportation sector the Mode Shift action uses more general “cost per passenger kilometer” factors which would not be appropriate to evaluate costs at the project level. Does CURB suggest interventions to achieve targets? CURB assists users in prioritizing actions by evaluating each potential intervention based on level of city authority, level of technical difficulty, implementation cost, payback duration, and emissions reduction potential. The ranking of each action along these criteria allows users to compare between actions, and identify those that create the most impact while limiting costs. Cities may also choose to partner with sector experts and consultants to evaluate and prioritize investments when using CURB.