1. GHG inventory submissions and review process under the UNFCCC 8 th Joint UNECE TFEIP & EIONET Meeting Astrid Olsson Reporting, Data and Analysis Programme UNFCCC Secretariat aolsson@unfccc.int Dublin, Ireland 23-24 October 2007

2. Overview l Background l Inventory submissions l Data handling l Review process l Other inventory related activities l Resources

3. Background l Requirement in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for all Parties to develop, periodically update, publish and make available to the COP national inventories on GHG l The first COP (1995) decided that Annex I Parties shall submit a GHG inventory annually (on 15 April) l COP 5 (1999) decided that Annex I Parties’ GHG inventories shall be reviewed annually l Kyoto Protocol inventory submissions and review process build on the Convention, supplementary information to be reported and reviewed

4. Inventory submissions l Submission due date 15 April – Grace period of six weeks l Submission should contain CRF tables for the whole time- series, NIR and XML-file l Most Parties upload submissions on secretariat’s ftp-site l Secretariat confirms receipt of submission with a list of what has been received, including acknowledgement file l Contact with Parties with questions/problems l Submission saved on common drive l Submission made available on the web l Daily update of submissions to review officers and database team l Submissions tracked in the internal tracking system l Same procedure for resubmissions

5. Data handling I l With Excel spreadsheet submissions an extremely resource intensive step in the submission/review process l CRF Reporter software faster data processing l Platform to handle submissions data totally changed in last two yearsmore automated process, faster and less risk for human error l Submissions imported in database l Contact with Party if questions/problems

6. Data handling II l Preparation of data for products for the review process Initial checks Key category analysis S&A I (tables) Outliers (statistical tool) S&A II (identification of potential problems for individual Parties) Locator l Data used for other secretariat publications

7. Review process I l Starts on 15 April each year with the initial check – Status report l Synthesis and assessment part I, ready 10 weeks after submission due date l Synthesis and assessment part II, sent to Party 7 weeks prior to review l Individual reviews usually take place in September/October (Desk) Centralized In country l Strict deadlines for publication of report for each stage – deadlines differ between Convention and Kyoto Protocol l Party can comment reports at all three stages

8. Review process II l Initial check Until 2007 manual process – labor intensive (0.5 day/Party+check) From 2007 partly automated process (checking 1-2 hrs/Party) l Synthesis and assessment part I Automatic preparation of tables Manual checking and formatting of tables Will be less labor intensive with better data handling procedures

9. Review process III l Synthesis and assessment part II Partly automated (recalculations table, energy graph, headers) Review officer needs 2-2.5 days per Party l Individual reviews Preparation Actual review 5-6 days – long days Help, advise and push experts to finalize draft reports within established deadlines

10. Review process IV l Lot of work “behind the scenes” Prepare review teams (~January) Prepare and send invitation – approximately 130 experts (~April/May) Coordinate logistics with Parties for in-country reviews (venue, schedule, hotel, set up etc.) Prepare and send CDs with materials for review teams Communication with experts/Parties prior to and after actual review week

11. Other inventory related activities I l Review officers support other activities as well: Development of in-house tools for review Development of CRF Reporter Preparation and conducting meeting of lead reviewers Training of new review experts (both Convention and Kyoto Protocol) – Mandatory for new experts to pass training and exams Negotiations in the Subsidiary body for technological and scientific advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary body for implementation (SBI), COP and COP/MOP on issues related to GHG inventories and national communications

12. Other inventory related activities II l Review officers support other activities as well: IPCC good practice guidance, IPCC good practice guidance for LULUCF and the 2006 IPCC guidelines IPCC Emission Factors Database (EFDB) Cooperation with other Conventions and Protocols Cooperation with international organization on data for reviews

13. Resources I l Inventory submissions One person (~ 15 min/Party and submission) l GHG database 1 team leader, 3 programme officers and 1 assistant full time Development of CRF Reporter Development of in-house tools With current automation of procedures will be less in future

14. Resources II l Reviews (inventories, national communications) 1 manager, 7 programme officers full time, 5 assistants part time Preparation of reviews Conducting reviews Support negotiations Other activities as required