State-of-the-Art Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory Guidance and Tools

The U.S. EPA State and Local Climate Change Program is unveiling the Emission Inventory Improvement Program Volume VIII: Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions, a revised guide for states conducting greenhouse gas emission inventories. The revised guidance is accompanied, for the first time, by the State Tool for Greenhouse Gas Inventory Development, a user-friendly inventory spreadsheet tool intended to reduce the burden associated with developing a new inventory or updating an existing inventory. The revised guidance reflects the most recent information on data sources, emission factors, and methods that are consistent with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Good Practice Guidance and the Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks. The guidance and tools both cover the full range of greenhouse gases and sources included in the national inventory, including carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion, industrial processes, land-use change and forestry, agricultural liming, and incineration; methane emissions from stationary combustion, mobile combustion, coal mining, oil systems, natural gas systems, manure management, enteric fermentation, rice cultivation, agricultural residue burning, landfills, and wastewater treatment; nitrous oxide emissions from stationary combustion, mobile combustion, nitric acid production, adipic acid production, manure management, agricultural soil management, agricultural residue burning, incineration, and wastewater treatment; and high-Global Warming Potential gas emissions from industrial processes and substitutes for ozone-depleting substances. Where possible, the tools provide statelevel default activity data and emission factors for the full time series from 1990 through 2000. EPA plans to periodically update the tools to incorporate new methodologies and default activity data. State-of-the-Art Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory