8 May 2012: The UNFCCC Secretariat has released the report of the centralized review of the 2011 annual submission of Hungary (FCCC/ARR/2011/HUN) that indicates that total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions decreased by 3.3% between 1990 and 2009.

In the report, the Expert Review Team (ERT) that conducted the centralized review concludes that Hungary’s inventory submission was prepared in compliance with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reporting guidelines. It also concludes that the inventory submission, the common reporting format (CRF) tables and the national inventory report were largely complete. However, the ERT notes that certain information was incomplete, including on: subcategories under consumption of halocarbons; activities on the possible offset of afforestation and reforestation; and deforestation debits.

The ERT underscores that Hungary has increased its transparency on reporting on the energy sector and has incorporated in the report many recommendations from the previous ERT review report for the industrial sector. The ERT identifies the following cross-cutting issues for improvement: transparency of the inventory on issues such as use of the EU emissions trading system (ETS) emissions data in the energy sector emission estimates; completion of the uncertainty analysis by including quantitative estimates for all categories, in particular for land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) categories; and the inclusion of a table describing Hungary’s follow-up actions to prior recommendations. The ERT further formulates recommendations for improving methodological approaches in estimating emissions, presenting information and collecting activity data. [Publication: Report of the Individual Review of the Annual Submission of Hungary Submitted in 2011]