The UNFCCC Secretariat has published a report summarizing discussions held during a technical workshop on draft revised guidelines for the technical review of greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories from Annex I Parties to the Convention (FCCC/SBSTA/2014/INF.9).
5 May 2014: The UNFCCC Secretariat has published a report summarizing discussions held during a technical workshop on draft revised guidelines for the technical review of greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories from Annex I Parties to the Convention (FCCC/SBSTA/2014/INF.9).
The workshop, co-chaired by Riitta Pipatti (Finland) and Brian Mantlana (South Africa), took place from 8-10 April 2014, in Bonn, Germany. The report and the draft revised guidelines (FCCC/SBSTA/2014/INF.10) will be submitted to, and considered by, the 40th session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 40).
Parties had been invited by STSTA 39 to submit their views on the following elements of the guidelines for the technical review: structure; outline; key elements, including purpose and scope of the review; timing and reporting; and content. SBSTA 39 also requested the Secretariat to prepare a synthesis report of those views and a draft of the revised guidelines based on those submissions, as input to the April workshop.
The aim of the workshop was to further clarify parties’ views, seek convergence or find middle ground for agreement, and advance drafting of the inventory review guidelines prior to SBSTA 40. It is expected that the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 20) to the UNFCCC will adopt a decision on the inventory review guidelines. Workshop discussions focused on: principles of the review, including enhancing review cost effectiveness and efficiency, promoting consistency and improving timeliness of reviews; review stages; operational approaches to the individual inventory review; scope, focus and timing of the different review stages; and reporting.
The draft revised guidelines for the technical review of inventories includes a section on general approaches, with subsections on, inter alia: confidentiality; timing and procedure of reviews; expert review teams, including competences and composition, and institutional arrangements; and the role of the Secretariat. The draft guidelines themselves contain brackets throughout the text and various alternative options under each section. The sections address, inter alia: purpose of the review; general procedures; scope of the review; timing; and reporting of status, synthesis and assessment, and individual reviews. [Workshop Report] [Revised Draft Guidelines]