The Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories

The IPCC Task Force on National greenhouse Gas Inventories (IPCC TFI) develops and refines internationally-agreed methodologies to estimate and report national inventories of human-caused greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals (national GHG inventories).

National GHG inventories are essential tools for countries to transparently report their GHG emissions and removals associated with human activities. They provide a fundamental basis for mutual trust and confidence among countries that are needed for effective implementation of international agreements to address climate change, including the Paris Agreement. They are also essential tools in developing policies and in monitoring impact. They provide invaluable information for those developing policies related to climate change.

Scientists from all over the world contribute in assessing and developing methodologies that are scientifically sound and relevant to all countries, bearing in mind the information gap in many developing countries.

Further, the IPCC TFI encourages and supports the widespread use of those methodologies by countries participating in the IPCC as well as by signatories of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). To do so, among other instruments and initiatives, IPCC TFI has also developed a dedicated software for inventory preparation and a database of relevant factors and parameters, and it does provide support to users.

The scientific topics covered by the Task Force on Inventories include:

The IPCC TFI activity is entirely centered on methods, approaches and procedures needed by countries for the preparation of their national GHG inventories.

National GHG inventories are composed of a time series of annual estimates of GHG emissions and removals caused by human activities, as aggregated within 4 sectors: Energy (production and consumption as heat and power); Industrial Processes and Product Use; Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use; and Waste (Covering both solid waste and wastewater management). Thus, national GHG inventories help estimate the level of impact of human activities on the atmospheric concentration of GHGs, as well as its trend across time.

NGHGIs are the instrument that allows us to quantify the contribution to climate change of each of our activities implemented across each land. On that basis, mitigation actions can be designed, implemented and monitored with their actual mitigation impacts fully taken into account.

Accordingly, the scientific topics evaluated by IPCC TFI include

• Methods for estimating:
  • GHG emissions from the production, transport and use of fossil fuels (Energy)
  • GHG emissions from industrial processes for the production of -e.g. cement, iron and steel, aluminium, various chemical products, semiconductors-
  • GHG emissions from the use of various products and apparatus -e.g. air conditioning, refrigeration, fire protection-
  • GHG emissions from agricultural practices, such as husbandry and fertilization,
  • CO2 uptake from vegetation and its subsequent storage in the organic matter (and its decaying products) and GHG emissions from the use, burning and decay of the organic matter,
  • GHG emissions from solid waste disposal and solid waste and wastewater treatment.

• Methods to propagate uncertainties across the preparation of estimates and the entire NGHGI
• Approaches to data collection, data management and archiving, ensuring time series consistency
• Procedures for quality control and quality assurance of the entire process of data collection & data analysis, preparation and verification of estimates, and reporting within the NGHGI

For each topic, scientists have identified good practices. Inventory compilers following those good practices achieve in their national GHG inventories: transparency in the information reported; accuracy of GHG estimates reported, completeness in the GHG sources and sinks estimated, consistency of estimated GHG emissions and removals across time, and thus comparability of GHG estimates reported across economic sectors and across national GHG inventories.

The Sixth Assessment Report

The latest Methodology Report produced by TFI within IPCC Sixth Assessment Cycle is the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (“2019 Refinement”). It was adopted and accepted by the IPCC in May 2019.

The overall aim of the 2019 Refinement is to provide an updated and sound scientific basis for supporting the preparation and continuous improvement of national GHG inventories by all countries in the world.

The 2019 Refinement is a milestone product of IPCC TFI, as a great deal of latest scientific knowledge is embodied thanks to contributions of over 280 scientists and experts from all over the world who assessed literatures accumulated since the previous comprehensive Methodology Report (2006 IPCC Guidelines) was produced in 2006.