Expert meeting on the
estimation of CH4 emissions from
solid waste disposal sites
with the First Order Decay method
Working Group I (Inventories) of the
EU Climate Change Committee
8-9 March 2006
EEA, Copenhagen
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Background
The Revised 1996 IPCC Guidelines and the IPCC Good Practice Guidance
(2000) describe two methods for estimating CH4 emissions from solid waste
disposal sites: the mass balance method (Tier 1) and the First Order Decay
(FOD) method (Tier 2). The aim of the expert meeting is to enable all Member
States to use the first-order-decay approach to estimate CH4 emissions from
landfills that do not yet use such an approach. Based on data from the
participants and new IPCC models and default data, the expert meetings is
aiming to calculate a first order-decay approach during the expert meeting for
the participating countries.
The mass balance method (Tier 1) approach of the 1996 IPCC Guidelines is
assuming that the waste disposed to landfills in a particular year completely
decays in the year of disposal. Higher tier methods take into account the
delayed decomposition in landfills and assume that degradable carbon in
waste decays to methane and CO2 following a first order decay (FOD)
reaction. In most EU Member States the waste amounts landfilled are
declining. With declining amounts of waste landfilled, the Tier 1 mass balance
approach is likely to overestimate emissions in the base year and to
underestimate CH4 emissions from landfills during the commitment period
under the Kyoto Protocol. IPCC 2006 Guidelines strongly discourage to use a
Tier 1 mass balance method as it produces results that are not comparable
with the more accurate FOD method. In place of the mass balance method,
2006 IPCC Guidelines provide a Tier 1 version of the FOD method including
simple spreadsheet models with step-by-step guidance and improved default
data. IPCC developed a spreadsheet calculation model that forms the basis of
the standardized First-Order-Decay method: In addition to this model the
IPCC 2006 Guidelines provide additional default data, e.g. for waste
generation, the fraction of waste disposed to landfills or waste composition.
With these tools and with the additional default parameters, it should be
possible for estimate CH4 emissions from landfills with a first order decay
approach, even for those countries that do not have very long time series for
disposed waste amounts. The aim of the meeting is to use these models and
default parameters during the expert meeting to calculate CH4 emissions from
solid waste disposal for all participating Member States. For this purpose
Member States should bring activity data and country-specific parameters if
available. After a short half-day introduction, the expert meeting focuses on
the application of the FOD model with data from the participating Member
States. At the end of the expert meeting, all participants should have
performed the estimation with one of the models for his/her country.
The expert meeting on the estimation of CH4 emissions from landfills with the
first order decay method is one in a series of workshops under the EC’s
Monitoring Mechanism for greenhouse gas emissions that intend to share
best practices, to compare the parameters chosen in the estimation
methodologies across EU Member States, to provide information for on-going
analysis under the Monitoring Mechanism and in making recommendations to
improve reporting in future.
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Data needs
The following data will be needed for the estimation:
 Data on amounts of solid waste generated and disposed on landfills or
expert judgements on the amounts disposed to landfills (in particular
for early years of the time series). Solid waste covers municipal solid
waste as well as industrial waste and sewage sludge. IPCC suggests
using a staring year of 1950 or earlier. As such long time series are
usually not available, activity data is extrapolated using historical
population and GDP data (back to 1950).
 Data and information on waste composition if available.
 Data and information on CH4 recovered or landfills recovering CH4.
 Available country-specific parameters or expert judgements, e.g. for
the amount of degradable organic carbon (DOC), the fraction of
degradable organic carbon that dissimilates (DOCf), half-life time,
oxidation factor or methane generation factor (MCF).
Participating experts are asked to bring the national data available to the
meeting. National experts should also strive to discuss data gaps with other
waste experts available in their countries prior to the expert meeting to enable
expert judgements during the workshop for those areas where national data
are not available.
Invited experts/organisations
The workshop is targeted at experts who have direct experience in estimating
the CH4 emissions from solid waste disposal sites for the national GHG
inventory and at Member States that at present have not yet calculated a firstorder-decay approach.
Organisational
The expert meeting will be held on 8-9 March 2006 at the EEA in
Copenhagen. The expert meeting will be equipped with computers to perform
the estimation with the IPCC models during the workshop on the basis of the
country-specific data from the participating experts.
The agenda for the workshop is included in Annex I of this document.
Registrations should be sent to Bitten Eriksen (Bitten.Eriksen@eea.eu.int)
until 24 February 2006.
Funding of participation
The expert meeting is free of charge. No reimbursement of travel costs for the
participants can be made.
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Workshop on Inventories and Projections of GHG Emissions from Waste
under WG I and II of the EU Climate Change Committee
EEA, Copenhagen
Agenda
Wednesday, 8 March 2006
10:00 Introduction
André Jol, European Environment Agency
Background
10:15 General background for the expert meeting
Anke Herold, ETC/ACC
10:30 Emissions from landfills - EU legislative framework
Bartosz Zambrzycki, European Environment Agency
10:45 Introduction into the IPCC model
Hans Oonk, TNO
11:30 Introduction into IPCC default data available
Anke Herold, European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change
11:45 Experiences using the IPCC model for projections of CH4 emissions
from solid waste disposal for the period 2005-2020 for EU-25
Alejandro Villaneuva, European Topic Centre on Resource and Waste
Management
12:30 Lunch
13:30 Round Table: Member State presentation of their estimation, data and
possible for CH4 from solid waste disposal sites
14:00 Working session on estimation at computers
All participants
16:00 Coffee & Tea
16:20 Continuation: Working session on estimation at computers
18:00 Discussion and status of work of first day
18:30 Closure of first day
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Thursday, 9 March 2006
09:00 Discussion of any outstanding issues from the first day
09:30 Finalisation of estimation for each country
12:30 Lunch
13:30 Finalisation of estimation for each country
15:00 Presentation of results and potential problems/ open questions
Presentation for each country
16:30 Conclusions and wrap-up
17:00 Closure
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