Use of measurement data in national
GHG inventories
The 9th GEOSS Asia-Pacific Symposium
Earth Observations supporting the implementation of the SDGs in the Asia Pacific region

12 January 2017, Tokyo, Japan
Kiyoto Tanabe
Co-Chair, IPCC Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (TFI) andPrincipal Researcher, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES)

Introduction• National GHG inventories: Estimates of anthropogenic emissions andremovals of GHGs national territory and offshore areas over which thecountry has jurisdiction on an annual basis.
• National GHG inventories help understand the magnitude of theproblem and are a key to policy development as well as reporting andmonitoring progress towards targets.
• All Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) are obliged to prepare and submit their national
GHG inventories.
– Annex I Parties: Every year
– Non-Annex I Parties: Every two years (Biennial Update Reports)• In order to build mutual trust and confidence and to promote effective
implementation of the Paris Agreement, an enhanced transparency
framework for action is required and for that, good quality and credible
national GHG inventory estimates are essential.

Paris Agreement and GHG Inventory
Information• Final Clauses of Paris Decision– 105. Also requests the secretariat, solely for the purposes of Article 21 of theAgreement, to make available on its website on the date of adoption of theAgreement as well as in the report of the Conference of the Parties at its
twenty-first session, information on the most up-to-date total and percent of greenhouse gas emissions communicated by Parties to theConvention in their national communications, greenhouse gas
inventory reports, biennial reports or biennial update reports;• Paris Agreement (Art. 13 para. 7)– Each Party shall regularly provide the following information:(a) A national inventory report of anthropogenic emissions by sources andremovals by sinks of greenhouse gases, prepared using good practicemethodologies accepted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change and agreed upon by the Conference of the Parties serving as themeeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement;

IPCC Inventory Guidelines
Non-Annex I Parties areencouraged to use GPGs.
Non-Annex I Parties shoulduse 1996 Guidelines.
(Annex to Decision 17/CP.8)

1995 IPCC
Guidelines

GPG2000(non-LULUCF)

GPG2003(LULUCF)New Supplementary Guidance in 2013

＋Annex I Parties must usefrom 2015
2006 IPCC
Guidelines

Revised 1996 IPCC
Guidelines

Actually, 2006 Guidelines are being usedby more and more Non-Annex I Parties.
Revision/Update by the IPCC

2006 IPCC Guidelines• Produced in 2006.
• Provide methodologies for estimating
national inventories of anthropogenic emissions
by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases.
• May assist Parties in fulfilling their commitments under theUNFCCC on reporting on national GHG inventories.
• Consist of 5 volumes:– Vol.1: General Guidance and Reporting– Vol.2: Energy– Vol.3: Industrial Processes and Product Use (IPPU)– Vol.4: Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU)– Vo.5: Waste

Use of measured data (particularly,satellite data) in 2006 IPCC Guidelines• Use of satellite data (remotely sensed data) are referred toin the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for two different purposes.
– For verification of emission/removal estimates– For collection of activity data for AFOLU Sector• However, there is no detailed discussion or guidance onusing remotely sensed data, its advantages and limitations.

Satellite Data in 2006 IPCC Guidelines
Verification• Comparison with atmospheric measurements is one of theapproaches to verification of emission/removal estimates.
• In this context, for example, use of inverse modelling withsatellite-borne sensors for GHG concentration
measurements is mentioned.
• However, it was considered not likely to be frequently
applied as a verification tool of national inventories in thenear future.
(Section 6.10.2, Chapter 6, Vol.1)

Satellite Data in 2006 IPCC Guidelines
Collection of activity data for AFOLU Sector• Use of RS data (including satellite data) are explicitly
referred to as a means to:– obtain, amongst other things, maps of land-use at regularintervals, estimates of changes in carbon stocks in above-groundbiomass, and– assess areas and types of disturbances.

• However, detailed guidance is not provided in mainchapters. Some guidance is provided only in an annex toChapter 3 on consistent representation of lands.
(Section 3A.2.4, Annex 3A.2, Vol.4)

Expert Meeting on Uncertainty & Validation(March 2010)• Expert Meeting on Uncertainty and Validation of Emission
Inventories was held in March 2010.
• The meeting concluded, among others:– Some RS techniques, particularly for area and area change
mapping, are sufficiently well-developed today that they could be
used in combination with other data … to improve the quality of
GHG inventories directly by contributing activity data (e.g., landconversion data).
– More work needs to be done in improving the availability,accessibility and processing of RS information (e.g. data, satellite
images) and developing standards. Interpretation and data
analysis may be resource-intensive.

Expert Meeting on RS (October 2012)• Expert Meeting: Role of Remote Sensing in Forest andNational Greenhouse Gas Inventories was held in October
2012, to review the use of RS in forest GHG inventories.
• The meeting concluded, among others:– While using RS to monitor forest areas can be a routine activity,
given sufficient resources and capacity, widespread monitoring offorest carbon stocks in many countries is still not widely applicable.
– There are a number of techniques under development and newsatellites to be launched in the next few years that will lead toincreased capabilities of RS of forests. However, to speed up thedevelopment of operational techniques, closer collaboration of RS
experts, terrestrial biosphere modellers and emission
inventory experts is needed.

Technical Assessment of Inventory
Guidelines (2015-2016)• In August 2014, TFI Bureau decided to undertake technicalassessment of the IPCC Inventory Guidelines.
• In 2015-2016, TFI assessed where science and data
availability have developed sufficiently to support therefinement or development of methodological advice.
• A number of issues were considered, including:– Development or improvement of guidance on the verification using
other estimation results like … GHG concentration in atmosphereby satellite observation– Update guidance on activity data for land representation to link land
classification system with digital maps (RS or GIS data), andalso to capture land use conversion as well as stratification.

Refinement of 2006 IPCC Guidelines(2016-2019)• In October 2016, the IPCC decided at its 44th Session toproduce a new Methodology Report to refine the 2006 IPCC
Guidelines with a view to publication in 2019.
2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelinesfor National Greenhouse Gas Inventories• Scope and outline of the 2019 Refinement was considered
and approved by the IPCC at the same session, based on
the outcome of the Scoping Meeting held in August 2016.
Decision IPCC/XLIV-5
http://www.ipcc.ch/meetings/session44/p44_decisions.pdf

Refinement in relation to Satellite Data
Volume 1: General Guidance and Reporting
Chapter 6: Quality Assurance/Quality Control and Verification
 Issue: Update/elaborate verification guidance because the existingguidance is outdated (especially the guidance on comparisons withatmospheric measurements and new datasets).
 Location in 2006 IPCC Guidelines: Section 6.10
 Type of refinement: Update/Elaboration

Refinement in relation to Satellite Data
Volume 4: Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU)
Chapter 2: Generic Methodologies Applicable to Multiple
Land-use Categories
 Issue: Develop guidance on how to use biomass density (amount perunit area) maps generated from RS data for biomass estimation.
 Location in 2006 Guidelines: New Subsection in Section 2.3.1
 Type of refinement: New guidance

Chapter 3: Consistent Representation of Lands
 Issue: Develop guidance on how RS data, ground based data, andancillary data can be integrated and used to derive consistent timeseries estimates of land use and land-use change.
 Location in 2006 Guidelines: Section 3.3 and Annex 3A.1 and 3A.2
 Type of refinement: Update/Elaboration/New guidanceFrom Users Perspective…
• In order for measured data (particularly satellite data) to be
useful to national GHG inventory compilers, particularly thosein developing countries:– Measured data need to be easily accessible.
– Practical guidance on how to use such data for verification and/oractivity data collection (for AFOLU) needs to be provided.

• Input from GEO experts to IPCC would be useful in refining
the IPCC Inventory Guidelines (2019 Refinement).
• Furthermore, continuous support to national GHG inventory
compilers by making measured data obtainable in a mannerconsistent with the refined IPCC Inventory Guidelines will
greatly contribute to the successful implementation of ParisAgreement.

Summary• Good quality national GHG inventories are essential to the enhanced
transparency framework for action under the Paris Agreement.
• Refinement of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas
Inventories planned by IPCC (“2019 Refinement”) is expected to help all
Parties to the UNFCCC in improving their national GHG inventories.
• Enhanced/new guidance will be included in the 2019 Refinement about
use of measured data in national GHG inventories particularly for:– Verification of estimates of GHG emissions/removals– Collection of activity data for Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use Sector• Cooperation of GEO experts will be of great help to national GHG
inventory compilers, which will eventually contribute to the successful
implementation of the Paris Agreement.
– Input to IPCC to help refining the IPCC Inventory Guidelines (2019 Refinement)– Continuous support to national GHG inventory compilers by making measured dataobtainable in a manner consistent with the refined IPCC Inventory Guidelines.

Thank you for your attention.

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