17 April 2013
UNFCCC Publishes Belarus’ GHG Inventory Review Report
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The UNFCCC Secretariat has released the report of the centralized review of the 2012 annual submission of Belarus (FCCC/ARR/2012/BLR), which indicates that total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for this country, excluding the land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector, decreased by 35.7% between 1990 and 2010.

12 April 2013: The UNFCCC Secretariat has released the report of the centralized review of the 2012 annual submission of Belarus (FCCC/ARR/2012/BLR), which indicates that total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for this country, excluding the land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector, decreased by 35.7% between 1990 and 2010.

The report notes that the trend in GHG emissions is typical of countries with economies in transition, with a rapid decline in the early 1990s, followed by a slow increase from 2000 to 2006. It further indicates that, in 2010, the energy sector accounted for 63.1% of total GHG emissions, while the industrial processes sector represented 4.6%, the agriculture sector 25.2%, and the waste sector 6.9%.

The Expert Review Team (ERT) that conducted the centralized review concludes that Belarus’ inventory submission was prepared in accordance with the UNFCCC reporting guidelines. It also concludes that the common reporting format (CRF) tables are complete. However, while the National Inventory Report (NIR) is complete in terms of geographical coverage, years and sectors, it is only generally incomplete in terms of categories and gases, as some categories were not estimated.

The ERT further concludes that Belarus’s inventory is generally in line with the relevant IPCC Guidelines. However, the ERT notes that almost all recommendations made in the previous review reports relating to improving the emission estimates have not been addressed. Moreover, the ERT identifies some elements of the institutional arrangements that need to be addressed, for example, the formation of an improvement programme to ensure that recommendations from previous review reports are addressed.

The ERT identifies the following overview issues for improvement: report all needed information regarding recalculations in CRF tables; estimate emissions for sectors currently reported as not estimated; include in the NIR more comprehensive information to explain the methodologies, procedures and descriptions of the data collection process and more data tables; and address recommendations from previous review reports. The ERT further formulates recommendations for improving methodological approaches in estimating emissions for specific sectors, including for the agriculture, LULUCF, energy and waste sectors. [Publication: Report of the Individual Review of the Annual Submission of Belarus Submitted in 2012]