12 April 2013: The UNFCCC Secretariat has released the report of the centralized review of the 2012 annual submission of Romania (FCCC/ARR/2012/ROU), which indicates that total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for this country decreased by 57.6% between 1990 and 2010, the key driver for this decrease being the economic downturn during the transition period to a market economy.

The report also states that, in 2010, the energy sector accounted for 70% of total GHG emissions, while the industrial processes sector represented 10.1%, the agriculture sector 15.3%, and the waste sector 4.6%.

The Expert Review Team (ERT) that conducted the centralized review concludes that Romania’s inventory submission was prepared in accordance with the UNFCCC reporting guidelines. It also concludes that the inventory submission, the common reporting format (CRF) tables and the national inventory report (NIR) are complete. The ERT further concludes that Romania’s inventory is generally in line with the relevant IPCC Guidelines. However, the ERT considers that some aspects need to be enhanced, such as strengthening the quality control procedures and increasing transparency.

The ERT identifies the following general issues for improvement: enhance the completeness of the inventory by providing estimates for the soil carbon stock changes for the missing pools; update the uncertainty analysis and include uncertainty estimates for all categories under the land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector; and strengthen quality control procedures.

The ERT further formulates recommendations for improving methodological approaches in estimating emissions for specific sectors, including for the agriculture, LULUCF, energy, industrial processes and waste sectors. [Publication: Report of the Individual Review of the Annual Submission of Romania Submitted in 2012]