ETC/CME Report 12/2021: A Guide to Conducting an Emission Inventory Review

03 Mar 2022

Justine Raoult (Aether), Lotte Gleeson (Aether), Kirsten May (Aether), Henry Irvine (Aether)

EEA project manager: Melanie Sporer

Abstract:

Since 2012, the European Environment Agency (EEA) has coordinated emission inventory reviews under the EU Effort Sharing Decision No 406/2009/EC (ESD). The ESD is the European Union’s (EU’s) internal mechanism that defined annual emission reduction targets for the period 2013-2020 for each Member State to contribute to the overall achievement of the EU’s 2020 climate target. The first ESD inventory review was organised in 2012 to determine the annual emission allocations (AEAs) assigned to Member States. Subsequent reviews, starting in 2015, provided the European Commission and Member States with verified greenhouse gas emission data for the assessment of yearly compliance with national ESD targets. Developing the review process and tools was challenging. The EEA were requested to help the European Commission to develop and implement a review process that would match the high quality of the existing greenhouse gas emission inventory reviews under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) but would deliver findings more rapidly - within eight months of the submission of the emission inventory information. This timeline was designed to allow for the annual compliance assessment under the ESD. The Union review was based upon the long-standing experience of the UNFCCC reviews, yet, we had to design an alternative approach to accommodate the ambitious timeline. This was when the idea for a two-step review process was established and elaborated in the Monitoring Mechanism Implementing Regulation shortly thereafter.

The review procedures and the tools evolved over time and continuously improved thanks to the dedication of the Commission’s consultants, the colleagues in the European Topic Centre on Climate Change Mitigation and Energy (ETC/CME) supporting the EEA review Secretariat and the valuable feedback from reviewers and Member State experts. In 2017, the online software tool used in the emission inventory review was successfully adapted for the inventory review of air pollutants under the EU’s NEC Directive.

Over these 10 years, the EEA review Secretariat and the European Commission’s consultants have gained a broad understanding of the principles, good practices and challenges of conducting an emission inventory review. This experience is shared in this Guide. We hope it will contribute to a better understanding of what conducting a quality review may entail and facilitate the design of efficient review procedures. The Guide is aimed at the emission inventory review community - those organising and coordinating reviews, those performing reviews and those subject to reviews.