Denmark's National Inventory Report 2005 - Submitted under the ...

1 Introduction
1.1 Background information on greenhouse gas inventories and climate
change
Annual report
This report is Denmark’s National Inventory Report (NIR) due by 15 April 2005 to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the European Union’s Greenhouse
Gas Monitoring Mechanism. The report contains information on Denmark’s inventories for
all years from 1990 to 2003. The structure of the report is in accordance with the UNFCCC Guidelines
on reporting and review (UNFCCC, 2002). The report includes detailed and complete information
on the inventories for all years from the base year to the year of the current annual inventory
submission, in order to ensure the transparency of the inventory.
The annual emission inventory for Denmark from 1990 to 2003 are reported in the Common Reporting
Format (CRF) as requested in the reporting guidelines. The CRF-spreadsheets contain data
on emissions, activity data and implied emission factors for each year. Emission trends are given
for each greenhouse gas and for the total greenhouse gas emissions in CO 2 equivalents. The complete
sets of CRF-files are available on the NERI homepage (www.dmu.dk). Annex 9 contains the
CRF tables 10.1 to 10.5.
The issues addressed in this report are: Trends in greenhouse gas emissions, description of each
IPCC category, uncertainty estimates, recalculations, planned improvements and procedure for
quality assurance and control.
According to the instrument of ratification the Danish government has ratified the UNFCCC on
behalf of Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Annex 6.1 contains total emissions for Denmark,
Greenland and the Faroe Islands for 1990 to 2003. In Annex 6.2 information on the Greenland
and the Faroe Islands inventories are given. Apart from Annexes 6.1 and 6.2 the information
in this report only relates to Denmark.
The NIR and the CRF tables are available to the public on the homepage of the Danish National
Environmental Research Institute (NERI)
(http://www.dmu.dk/1_Viden/2_Miljoe-tilstand/3_luft/4_adaei/default_en.asp ).
Greenhouse gases
The greenhouse gases reported under the Climate Convention are:
• Carbon dioxide (CO 2 )
• Methane (CH 4 )
• Nitrous Oxide (N 2 O)
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
• Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)
• Sulphur hexafluoride (SF 6 )
The main greenhouse gas responsible for the anthropogenic influence on the heat balance is CO 2 .
The atmospheric concentration of CO 2 has increased from 280 to 370 ppm (about 30%) since the
pre-industrial era in the nineteenth century. The main cause is the use of fossil fuels, but changing
land use, including forest clearance, has also been a significant factor. The concentrations of the
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