15 May 2012: The UNFCCC Secretariat has released the report of the centralized review of Germany’s 2011 annual submission (FCCC/ARR/2011/DEU), which indicates that total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions decreased by 26.5% between 1990 and 2009, and that the energy sector accounted for 82.6% of total GHG emissions.

Germany’s annual submission contains: its GHG inventory, comprising common reporting format (CRF) tables and a national inventory report (NIR); and supplementary information under Kyoto Protocol Article 7.1 (reporting of various supplementary information). The Expert Review Team (ERT) that conducted the centralized review concludes that the GHG inventory is generally in line with the UNFCCC reporting guidelines and various guidelines by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It notes that the inventory covers all mandatory source and sink categories for 1990-2009 and is complete in terms of years and geographical coverage. It therefore commends Germany’s efforts in ensuring its inventory’s completeness. The ERT also highlights recalculations made by Germany in its inventory, in response to the last annual review report.

The ERT also formulates recommendations for improvements to Germany’s annual submission, including that Germany should: provide sufficient information on the methodologies used for estimating emissions for iron and steel production; improve the timeliness of reporting of the national energy balance; revise the methodology for carbon stock changes for mineral soil by implementing specific suggestions; and improve the documentation on the uncertainty analysis, by providing in the NIR, the information on uncertainties. [Publication: Report of the Individual Review of the Annual Submission of Germany Submitted in 2011]