Use of Models and Facility-Level Data in Greenhouse Gas Inventories

Use of Models and Facility-Level Data in Greenhouse Gas Inventories
1 Introduction
The IPCC Expert Meeting on the Use of Models and Measurements in Greenhouse Gas Inventories was held in Sydney
Australia on 9-11 August 2010.
The IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories are used by parties to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to report their national greenhouse gas emissions and removals as required
by the Convention. The Revised 1996 IPCC Guidelines and the subsequent Good Practice Guidance are currently
adopted by the UNFCCC for reporting. The IPCC has recently updated this guidance in the 2006 IPCC Guidelines and
this is currently being considered by the UNFCCC.
The 2006 IPCC Guidelines focus on providing guidance on lower level tiers, leaving nationally specific Tier 3 approaches
to national inventory compilers to design and document. However, the IPCC expert meeting in Helsinki in May 2008
identified that the transparency of Tier 3 models, specifically demonstrating the comparability of models with the IPCC
Guidelines, was an area where the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (TFI) could provide additional
guidance. Subsequently the Task Force Bureau (TFB) agreed that an expert meeting should cover:
• Tier 3 models: how they should be reported and documented and how they could, in general be validated;
• Inclusion of facility-level data (both estimates and measurements, also Tier 3 approaches);
• Ensuring inventories can track mitigation efforts in a transparent way.
The meeting focused on two main areas:
• Steps to increase the perceived transparency of Tier 3 models including use, evaluation, review and
documentation of models (e.g. COPERT (COmputer Programme to calculate Emissions from Road Transport),
New Zealand’s enteric CH 4 inventory model, CBM-CFS3 (Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector),
modelling CH 4 emissions from rice paddies);
• Facility-level data and how they are incorporated into complete national inventories, including the use of
measurements at facilities.
Invited background papers (see Annex 1) and presentations 1 exploring these topics were followed by smaller group
discussions. In the light of these discussions and experience to date, the meeting compiled a report on experience and
the lessons learnt, particularly related to transparency, so that inventory compilers addressing these issues can benefit
from this experience.
1 All presentations are on the TFI website: www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp
IPCC Expert Meeting Report 9 TFI