Regional workshop for the “Capacity Development for sustainable national Greenhouse
Gas Inventories – AFOLU sector” (CD-REDD II) Programme
National Inventory System
Daniela Romano
Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA)
Quito, Ecuador 10-13 May 2011

Training Workshop on the National System for the
Greenhouse Gas Inventory (GHG)
Rome, Italy 25-28 January 2011
Topic: To plan, prepare and manage a national GHG
Inventory
•   National system for the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory in non-Annex I Parties
- technical requirement
- institutional actions

Objectives
•
Present current legal status of GHG Inventory for non-Annex I Parties and its relevance for REDD+ and
NAMAs
•
Provide information and training on establishing and developing the national system for the GHG
Inventory
Content
•
General presentation on national system
•
Details on specific elements required

Implementation of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol
•   Article 5.1 of the Kyoto Protocol requires that Annex
I Parties to the Convention have a National System in place by the end of 2006 at the latest for estimating anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks and for reporting and archiving the results
UNFCCC, 2005. Guidelines for national systems under article 5, paragraph 1, of the Kyoto Protocol contained in the document
FCCC/KP/CMP/2005/8/Add.3

Definition
A national system includes all institutional, legal and procedural arrangements established within an
Annex I Party for estimating anthropogenic emissions by sources, and removals by sinks of all greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal
Protocol, and for reporting and archiving inventory information
Objectives
•
Implementation of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto
Protocol requirements
•
Estimation and reporting (Art 5 and Art 7.1)
•
Commitments under Articles 3 and 8

•   Facilitate the review process
•   Improve quality, complying with the principles of:
transparency
consistency
comparability
accuracy
completeness
timeliness
The national system also guarantees that data are officially approved by governments

General function
•
Each Annex I Party shall establish and maintain the institutional, legal and procedural arrangements between the government agencies and other entities responsible for the planning, preparation and management of the inventory
•
Parties shall ensure sufficient capacity for timely performance of the specific functions defined in the guidelines for national systems
•
A single national entity shall be designated with overall responsibility for the national inventory

Institutional arrangements
Italian case
•
The Institute for Environmental Protection and Research
(ISPRA) is the single entity in charge of the development and compilation of the national GHG inventory (Legislative
Decree 51, 7 March 2008)
•
The ‘national registry for carbon sinks’, instituted by a
Ministerial Decree on 1st April 2008, is part of the Italian
National System
•
ISPRA is also responsible for the management and functioning of the national registry under Directive 2003/87/
CE (Legislative Decree 51, 7 March 2008)
8

Institutional arrangements
•
A National System plan is drawn up annually by ISPRA and communicated to the Ministry for the Environment, Land and
Sea
•
The Ministry is in charge of the approval of the annual
National System plan
•
The Ministry is also responsible for the endorsement of the inventory and for its official communication to the UNFCCC and EC Monitoring Mechanism

National Inventory System
ISPRA is responsible for all aspects of the national inventory system:

Inventory planning

Inventory preparation

Inventory management

Annual Inventory process
4. Inventory improvement
Quality meetings
Evaluation of effectiveness of the inventory system
Assessing issues to be subject to further improvements
1.
Planning
- Setting quality objectives
Elaboration QA/QC plan
Defining processes and resources
Selecting methods and emission factors
Continuous improvement
3. Inventory evaluation
- Implementing QA activities
Internal audits
Independent reviews
Verification
Review of international review teams (UE -
UNFCCC)
2. Preparation
- Collecting activity data
Updating emission factors
Estimating GHG emissions and removals
Implementing QC checks
Uncertainty assessment
Assessment of key categories
Archiving inventory material
Reporting

Inventory planning
Activities include:
1. Definition and allocation of specific responsibilities in the inventory development process
i.e definition of the roles of different institution in the context of collection and processing of data, selection of appropriate emissions factors and estimation methods consistent with the relevant guidelines
•
Different institutions are responsible for basic statistical data and data publication
These institutions are part of a National Statistical System
(Sistan), which provides periodically national official statistics

National Statistical System
Statistical offices
Ministries
National agencies
Regions and autonomous provinces
Provinces, municipalities
Research institutes
Chambers of commerce
Institutes of statistical information diffusion

National Statistical System
•
The Italian statistical system was instituted in 1989 by a
Legislative Decree, which established guiding principles and criteria for reforming public statistics and ensuring homogeneity and comparability of official statistics
•
The homogeneity of the methods is ensured through a coordination plan (National Statistical Plan)
•
The national statistical plan defines surveys, data elaborations and project studies for a three-year period and shall be drawn up and updated annually, as established in
Decree n. 322/89
•
Ministries, public agencies and other bodies are obliged to provide the data and information specified in the annual statistical plan

National Statistical System and National Statistics
The main Sistan products, primarily necessary for the inventory compilation, are:

National Statistical Yearbooks, Monthly Statistical Bulletins
National Institute of Statistics ;

Annual Report on the Energy and Environment
Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment ;

National Energy Balance (annual), Petrochemical Bulletin
(quarterly publication) Ministry of Economic Development ;

Transport Statistics Yearbooks Ministry of Transportation ;

Annual Statistics on Electrical Energy
National Independent System Operator ;

Annual Report on Waste ISPRA;

National Forestry Inventory
Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forest Policies;

National Emission Inventory

Activity data and data sources

Activity data and data sources

Inventory planning
2. Elaboration of a QA/QC plan
•
ISPRA has elaborated an inventory QA/QC procedures manual which describes QA/QC procedures and verification activities to be followed during the inventory compilation process
•
Specific QA/QC procedures and different verification activities implemented thoroughly the current inventory compilation are figured out in the annual QA/QC plan
•
Future planned improvements are prepared for each sector by the relevant inventory compiler; areas for sectoral improvement are also identified in response to inventory
UNFCCC reviews and other kinds of processes

Inventory planning
3. Establishment of a process for the official
consideration and approval of the inventory
•
The inventory is presented to a Technical Committee on
Emissions (CTE), coordinated by the Ministry for the
Environment, Land and Sea where all relevant Ministries and local authorities are represented
•
Ministries and other bodies are also participating to other emission related activities (i.e emission projections, implementation and evaluation of policies and measures)

Inventory planning
4. Response to the review processes
Respond in a timely manner to requests made during different stages of the review processes
5. Annual updating of the QA/QC plan
QA/QC plan is compiled annually and submitted to the
Ministry together with the National System plan

Inventory preparation
Activities include:
1.
Estimation of emissions
•
Methodologies are consistent with the IPCC Guidelines and
GPG. CORINAIR Guidebook is also used
•
National methodologies are supported by referenced background documents
•
National EFs integrated by default EFs (IPCC, CORINAIR,
EPA) in case national data are not available
•
Cooperation with different governmental and research institutions as well as industrial associations
•
Access to data collected through European Emissions
Trading Scheme (ETS), National Pollutant Emission
Register (E-PRTR), Large Combustion Plant (LCP)

Inventory preparation
2. Quantitative evaluation of uncertainty
•
Approach 1 of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines is applied to the
Italian inventory. Approach 2 has been implemented for some categories
•
Figures to draw up uncertainty analysis are checked with the relevant analyst experts and are consistent with the IPCC
GPG and Guidelines
•
The uncertainty analysis is used to prioritize research activities for categories with a high uncertainty in order to improve the accuracy of the inventory
•
For 2009, the uncertainty is equal to 3.4% in the combined total emissions, whereas for the trend between 1990 and
2009 the figure is by 2.5%
•
Including LULUCF, the uncertainty is equal to 10.4%, whereas the uncertainty for the trend is estimated to be 8%

Inventory preparation
3. Assessment of key categories
•
A key category is defined as a category that has a significant influence on a country’s GHG inventory in terms of the absolute level of emissions, the trend in emissions, or uncertainty
•
Key categories are those which, when summed together in descending order of magnitude, add up to over 95% of the total emissions or 90% of total uncertainty
•
Higher tiers should be used to estimate emissions from key categories
•
A key category analysis of the Italian inventory is carried out by Approach 1 and Approach 2 of the 2006
IPCC Guidelines

Key categories

Key categories

Inventory preparation
4. Implementation of QA/QC procedures
•
Quality control checks and quality assurance procedures together with some verification activities are applied both to the national inventory as a whole and at sectoral level
•
Coordination with national and regional authorities and private institutions for the cross-checking of parameters and estimates as well as with ad hoc expert panel
Further verification processes
•
Explore the data flows of the main emissions reporting instruments
•
Verify the consistency among different national emissions reporting requirements
National Emissions Reporting
Emissions projections
Policies and measures

Inventory preparation
•
Comparisons between national activity data and data from international databases
•
Results from international reviews
•
Additional comparisons between emission estimates from industrial sectors and those published by the industry in the Environmental reports
•
Local inventories
•
Organization and participation in sector specific workshops

Inventory preparation
5. Recalculation
•
To meet the requirements of transparency, consistency, comparability, completeness and accuracy of the inventory, the entire time series from 1990 onwards should be checked and revised every year during the annual compilation of the inventory
•
Recalculations are elaborated on account of changes in the methodologies, different allocation of emissions and error corrections, availability of new information
•
Changes can also be based on the observations of the different inventory review stages
•
All major changes are reported in Tables 8(B) of the CRFs and in the relevant chapters of the NIR. They are also included in the annual QA/QC document

Inventory preparation
6. Basic independent review
•
An official independent and public review prior to the Italian inventory submission is planned subject to financial resources availability. Related funds should be supplied in the framework of an Agreement on GHG inventory between the Ministry of the Environment and ISPRA

Inventory preparation
7. Re-evaluation of the inventory planning process
•
Whenever relevant changes in methodologies and emission estimates for key sources are planned, new methodologies and emission factors are chosen after consultation with the national experts
•
Internal reviews are also undertaken, comparing different methodologies, before including modifications in the inventory
•
The QA/QC plan is updated every year to re-evaluate the quality objectives of the inventory

Inventory management
•
All reference material, estimates and calculation sheets, documentation on scientific papers and basic data needed for the inventory compilation are stored and archived at
ISPRA
•
The archive is organised so that any skilled analyst can obtain relevant data sources and spreadsheets, reproduce the inventory and review all decisions about assumptions and methodologies
•
After each reporting cycle, all database files, spreadsheets and electronic documents used for the inventory compilation are archived as ‘read-only-files’
•
A ‘reference’ database has been developed
•
The database consists of references of all documentation used in the inventory compilation, by sector and submission year, the link to electronically available documents and the place where they are stored as well as internal documentation on QA/QC procedures

Outputs Inputs
National Statistical authority e public authorities
Reporting to EU-
Monitoring Mechanism
15 January - 15 March
Research institutes, stakeholders, universities
ISPRA
Planning, preparation and management of GHG inventory
Reporting to UNFCCC
15 April
Industrial plants
Approval of the inventory by the
Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea

Publicly available information
The CRF files, the national inventory reports and other related documents are available at the address: http://www.sinanet.apat.it/it/sinanet/serie_storiche_emissioni
All the reports are published on: http://www.apat.gov.it/site/it-IT/APAT/Pubblicazioni/
Altre_Pubblicazioni.html

Country specific quality of reporting reflects the extent to which countries have (or could develop):
•
technical capacity
•
a single inventory authority/system/entity
•
data flow protocols from data owners to the inventory team
•
clear and unified QA/QC system for all emission reporting

Is a national system effective?
•
Ministries with reporting responsibilities communicate data effectively (i.e. Energy, Transport, Agriculture, Environment)?
•
National Statistical authority is involved and focused?
•
Are there standardised methods for data collection, compilation, QA/QC, or reporting?
•
Ensure sufficient data of adequate quality (i.e. Transparent,
Complete, Consistent, Comparable and Accurate) to enable the development of future policies and to monitor performance against targets
•
The facility level data that available are sufficiently detailed to be used in the estimation process?