Oecd Environment Directorate International Energy Agency Current Status of National Inventory Preparation in Annex I Parties and Non-annex I Parties

The Annex I Expert Group oversees development of analytical papers for the purpose of providing useful and timely input to the climate change negotiations. These papers may also be useful to national policy makers and other decision-makers. In a collaborative effort, authors work with the Annex I Expert Group to develop these papers. However, the papers do not necessarily represent the views of the OECD or the IEA, nor are they intended to prejudge the views of countries participating in the Annex I Expert Group. Rather, they are Secretariat information papers intended to inform Member countries, as well as the UNFCCC audience. Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and United States of America. Korea and Mexico, as new OECD member countries, also participate in the Annex I Expert Group. Where this document refers to " countries " or " governments " it is also intended to include " regional economic organisations " , if appropriate. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author thanks Stéphane Willems and Jane Ellis (OECD) for their guidance and comments. Executive Summary This paper provides a generic assessment of the current status of Annex I and Non-Annex I greenhouse gas inventories. While it contains country-specific information for many Annex I and Non-Annex I Parties, its purpose, however, is not to review individual countries' inventories. Such individual reviews are conducted through the UNFCCC process, at least for Annex I Parties. Rather, it is meant to provide a broad picture of improvements and progress, as well as problems and weaknesses, across countries, in preparing and submitting inventory information. For Annex I Parties, it also gives a general assessment of the gap or distance to the full compliance with the reporting requirements under the Protocol and to a well functioning national inventory system 1. More generally, such an analysis may provide a better understanding of the level of institutional capacity that exists in Annex I and non Annex I Parties to prepare national inventories. The paper chooses the compliance with the key inventory principles completeness, comparability, consistency, transparency and accuracy as analytical framework. In addition to those five principles, timeliness of submission and the establishment QA/QC procedures are analysed for Annex I Parties. Some general criteria such as the availability of information on data quality, completeness or transparency were analysed for a selection of 41 Non-Annex I Parties. Availability and timeliness Under the UNFCCC, Annex I Parties are requested to provide annually an inventory …