To mitigate climate change, a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide is necessary.
The system of reporting to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) both urges the countries to take action and provides with a basis for monitoring and reviewing the current climate mitigation measures mitigation efforts.
The GHG inventory system was created to record and monitor the greenhouse gas emissions and removals within a country in an unified and comparable manner. The inventories help policymakers set targets and identify areas and sectors where actions should be taken in order to achieve a reduction in GHG emissions and adhere to international agreements.
The gasses reported include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and more. To ensure data comparability, the inventories are created based on an commonly accepted methodology. The method is based on the 3 tier approach, where each tier represents a level of methodological and data complexity for emission calculations.
Ieva Līcīte LIFE OrgBalt project coordinator elaborates “Improvement of GHG inventory calculation methods (regionally specific GHG emission factors and moving to higher Tiers) and activity data sets is crucial for more precise GHG inventory calculations and GHG emission projections. Activity data (e.g. land use and management practices and conditions) in one of the most important elements of the GHG calculation and projections from organic soils, especially if climate changes are considered in modelling”.
As a result, the improved data availability can lead to a higher tier approach in calculating the GHG emissions for the national inventories, and therefore provide policymakers with more precise information on the status quo of GHG emissions of a country and mitigation measures that have proven effective.