25 February 2013: The UNFCCC Secretariat has released the report of the centralized review of the 2012 annual submission of Estonia (FCCC/ARR/2012/EST), which states that total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions decreased by 49.6% between 1990 and 2010.

The Expert Review Team (ERT) that conducted the centralized review concludes that Estonia’s inventory submission was prepared in compliance with the UNFCCC reporting guidelines. It also concludes that the inventory submission, the common reporting format (CRF) tables and the national inventory report were generally complete. However, certain information was not complete, including on some pools under the land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector. The ERT therefore fins that the reporting is not fully in line with the IPCC good practice guidance for LULUCF.

The ERT commends Estonia for the improvements made compared with previous annual submissions, in particular for, inter alia: the revision of natural gas; more complete and more accurate reporting of certain gases; the provision of estimates of the carbon stock changes in living biomass for cropland and in forests converted to settlements.

The ERT identifies the following cross-cutting issues for improvement: completeness of mandatory pools and related emissions and removals; exploration of the possibility of strengthening the links between the GHG inventory compilers and statistics, to facilitate the preparation of the inventory for the energy sector; and provide clearer information on all sectors to improve the transparency of the reporting. The ERT further formulates recommendations for improving methodological approaches in estimating emissions under different categories, including for the LULUCF, agriculture, industrial processes and energy sectors. [Publication: Report of the Individual Review of the Annual Submission of Estonia Submitted in 2012]