CELEX: 
Language: en
Date: 2020-05-08 00:00:00
Title: COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) …/... supplementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to values for global warming potentials and the inventory guidelines and with regard to the Union inventory system and repealing Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 666/2014

EUROPEAN
                           COMMISSION
                                                    Brussels, 8.5.2020
                                                    C(2020) 2841 final
                COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) …/...
                                        of 8.5.2020
    supplementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the
      Council with regard to values for global warming potentials and the inventory
   guidelines and with regard to the Union inventory system and repealing Commission
                         Delegated Regulation (EU) No 666/2014
                                 (Text with EEA relevance)
EN                                                                                   EN
 ---pagebreak---                                    EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
   1.        CONTEXT OF THE DELEGATED ACT
   In accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the
   Council of 11 December 2018 on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action,
   amending Regulations (EC) No 663/2009 and (EC) No 715/2009 of the European Parliament
   and of the Council, Directives 94/22/EC, 98/70/EC, 2009/31/EC, 2009/73/EC, 2010/31/EU,
   2012/27/EU and 2013/30/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, Council
   Directives 2009/119/EC and (EU) 2015/652 and repealing Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 of
   the European Parliament and of the Council; the rules for the Union inventory system must be
   laid down. Moreover, it is necessary to specify the inventory guidelines, which are important
   for the greenhouse gas inventory reporting by Member States as required by the relevant EU
   legislation as well as decisions of the relevant bodies of the United Nations Framework
   Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement.
   Besides the Union inventory system and the inventory guidelines, new values of the global
   warming potentials of greenhouse gases must be adopted, since they are crucial for
   greenhouse gas inventory reporting by Member States in view of their compliance with the
   greenhouse gas emission targets set under EU legislation and the Paris Agreement. The
   proposed values of global warming potentials in Annex I of the Delegated Regulation in
   question are based on the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate
   Change, in line with the latest science. The list of gases in Annex I corresponds to the list of
   gases defined as greenhouse gases set out in Part 2 of Annex V of Regulation (EU)
   2018/1999.
   Recognising the advantages of establishing a common metric, the Parties to the Paris
   Agreement decided in 2018 that each Party has to use the global warming potential with 100-
   year time horizon from the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report to report aggregate emissions &
   removals in its national greenhouse gas inventory. The Delegated Regulation brings EU
   inventory guidelines into line with these requirements, while also continuing the separate
   reporting of each greenhouse gas, thereby enabling the EU and Member States to develop
   policies targeting specific gases as appropriate. At both EU and UNFCCC level, the common
   metric is kept under review, to be in line with future IPCC assessment reports.
   2.        CONSULTATIONS PRIOR TO THE ADOPTION OF THE ACT
   In line with paragraph 4 of the Common Understanding on Delegated Acts annexed to the
   Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law Making between the European Parliament, the
   Council and the European Commission1, appropriate consultations were carried out in the
   course of preparation of this Delegated Regulation. The experts in the formation of
   Greenhouse Gas Inventory under the Commission Climate Change Expert Group were
   consulted in the meetings held on 6 May and 3 July 2019, and they submitted written
   comments on the final draft Delegated Regulation in November 2019 and February 2020. The
   documents relevant to the meetings have been transmitted simultaneously to the European
   Parliament and the Council, as foreseen in the Common Understanding on Delegated Acts.
   The observations expressed by the expert group were taken into account when preparing the
   Delegated Regulation.
   1
           Interinstitutional Agreement Between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and
           the European Commission of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making (OJ L 123, 12.5.2016, p.1).
EN                                                      1                                                      EN
 ---pagebreak---    The draft Delegated Regulation was published on the Better Regulation portal for a four-week
   feedback period from 4 March until 2 April 2020. During this period, feedback was received
   from three citizens and ten organisations and businesses. Most of the feedback concerned the
   global warming potential: several stakeholders asked for parallel reporting of methane
   emissions using the global warming potentials with a 20-year time horizon; one stakeholder
   questioned the selection of the global warming potentials with a 100-year time horizon
   including climate-carbon feedback for CO2 only. There were also suggestions to add in Annex
   I a gas, which is neither recognised as a greenhouse gas by Regulation (EU) 2018/1999, nor
   listed in the 5th Assessment Report. One stakeholder asked for UNFCCC inventory rules to be
   reviewed in view of Carbon Capture and Utilisation.
   3.        LEGAL ELEMENTS OF THE DELEGATED ACT
   Article 26(6)(b) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 empowers the Commission to adopt delegated
   acts in order to supplement the Regulation by adopting values for global warming potentials
   and specifying the inventory guidelines. Article 37(7) empowers the Commission to adopt
   delegated acts in order to supplement it by setting out rules concerning the requirements on
   the establishment, operation and functioning of the Union inventory system.
   The delegated act in question replaces the current Commission Delegated Regulation (EU)
   666/2014 establishing substantive requirements for a Union inventory system and taking into
   account changes in the global warming potentials and internationally agreed inventory
   guidelines pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 of the European Parliament and of the
   Council, from 1 January 2021.
EN                                               2                                              EN
 ---pagebreak---                      COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) …/...
                                                    of 8.5.2020
       supplementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the
         Council with regard to values for global warming potentials and the inventory
     guidelines and with regard to the Union inventory system and repealing Commission
                                 Delegated Regulation (EU) No 666/2014
                                          (Text with EEA relevance)
   THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
   Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
   Having regard to Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council
   of 11 December 2018 on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action, amending
   Regulations (EC) No 663/2009 and (EC) No 715/2009 of the European Parliament and of the
   Council, Directives 94/22/EC, 98/70/EC, 2009/31/EC, 2009/73/EC, 2010/31/EU, 2012/27/EU
   and 2013/30/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, Council Directives
   2009/119/EC and (EU) 2015/652 and repealing Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 of the
   European Parliament and of the Council2, and in particular Article 26(6)(b) and Article 37(7)
   thereof,
   Whereas:
   (1)     The mechanism for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions as laid down
           in Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council3 sets
           out the rules for monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions under the
           climate policy. The provisions of that mechanism are fully integrated in Regulation
           (EU) 2018/1999, which repeals Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 from 1 January 2021.
           Within that mechanism, it is necessary to adopt values for global warming potentials
           and specify the inventory guidelines.
   (2)     Concerning the global warming potentials, the 1st meeting of the Conference of the
           Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
           serving as the meeting of the Parties to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change
           following the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (the 'Paris Agreement')
           established a common metric for translating greenhouse gases to CO2 equivalents for
           the purposes of reporting of greenhouse gas inventories. That common metric is based
           on global warming potential values set out in the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate
           Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report4. The values for global warming potentials
           should take account of that common metric.
   2
           OJ L 328, 21.12.2018, p.1.
   3
           Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on a
           mechanism for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and for reporting other information
           at national and Union level relevant to climate change and repealing Decision No 280/2004/EC (OJ L
           165, 18.6.2013, p. 13).
   4
           Column 'GWP 100-year' in Table 8.A.1 of Appendix 8.A of the report 'Climate Change 2013: The
           Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the
EN                                                        3                                                    EN
 ---pagebreak---    (3) The greenhouse gas inventory guidelines should be specified in accordance with
       international developments. In addition to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National
       Greenhouse Gas Inventories, the Member States and the Commission should take into
       account the modalities, procedures and guidelines for the transparency framework for
       action and support referred to in Article 13 of the Paris Agreement set out in the
       Annex to Decision 18/CMA.1 of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC
       serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (‘Decision 18/CMA.1’).
       Moreover, Member States are encouraged to use the 2013 Supplement to the 2006
       IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories: Wetlands.
   (4) To ensure the quality of the Union inventory, further objectives of the Union quality
       assurance and quality control programme should be set out.
   (5) In order to ensure the completeness of the Union inventory within the meaning of
       Decision 18/CMA.1, it is necessary to set out the methodologies and the data to be
       used by the Commission when preparing estimates for data missing from a Member
       State inventory pursuant to Article 37(5) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999.
   (6) In order to ensure the timeliness, transparency, accuracy, consistency, comparability
       and completeness, of the Union inventory, it is necessary to specify the content of the
       initial checks carried out on the greenhouse gas inventory data submitted by the
       Member States. The assessment of accuracy as part of the initial checks should ensure
       that the Member States do not systematically over- or underestimate the actual
       emissions and removals in relation to Union key categories. Moreover, as the
       reporting of greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks from the land
       use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector is an integral part of the
       greenhouse gas inventory reporting and due to the inclusion of the LULUCF sector in
       the 2030 climate target, the initial checks in the LULUCF sector should be aligned
       with those carried out in the other sectors. In the LULUCF sector, the reported land
       use and land use change activity data may be compared with information derived from
       the Union and Member State programmes and surveys, such as Copernicus and
       LUCAS.
   (7) The estimates to complete the missing national inventory data to compile the Union
       inventory are prepared in accordance with the greenhouse gas inventory guidelines.
       Those estimates cannot be determined without applying values for global warming
       potential of greenhouse gases. As the rules on global warming potentials, inventory
       guidelines and the Union inventory system are substantively linked, it is appropriate to
       include them in one Delegated Regulation.
   (8) In order to ensure consistency with the date of application of the relevant provisions of
       Regulation (EU) 2018/1999, this Regulation should apply from 1 January 2021.
   (9) In accordance with Articles 57 and 58 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999, Regulation
       (EU) No 525/2013 is repealed with the effect from 1 January 2021, with the exception
       of Article 7 of that Regulation, which is to apply to the reports containing data from
       the years 2018, 2019 and 2020. Delegated Regulation (EU) No 666/2014 should
       therefore be repealed from 1 January 2021, however, its Articles 6 and 7 should
       continue to have effect for the reports containing data required for the years 2019 and
       2020,
       Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change', p. 731; available at https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-
       report/ar5/.
EN                                              4                                                       EN
 ---pagebreak---    HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
                                               Article 1
                                                 Scope
   This Regulation applies to the reports submitted by the Member States containing data
   required for the year 2021 onwards.
                                               Article 2
                                    Global warming potentials
   The Member States and the Commission shall use the global warming potentials listed in
   Annex I to this Regulation for the purpose of determining and reporting greenhouse gas
   inventories data pursuant to paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of Article 26 of Regulation (EU)
   2018/1999.
                                               Article 3
                               Greenhouse gas inventory guidelines
    The Member States and the Commission shall determine greenhouse gas inventories
    referred to in paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of Article 26 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 in
    accordance with:
            (a)   the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for
                  National Greenhouse Gas Inventories;
            (b)   the modalities, procedures and guidelines for the transparency framework for
                  action and support referred to in Article 13 of the Paris Agreement set out in
                  the Annex to Decision 18/CMA.1 of the Conference of the Parties serving as
                  the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (‘Decision 18/CMA.1’).
                                               Article 4
                  Quality assurance and quality control programme objectives
   1.       The Commission shall manage, maintain and seek to continuously improve the
            Union greenhouse gas inventory system based on the following quality assurance
            and quality control programme objectives:
            (a)   that the Union greenhouse gas inventory is complete by, where relevant,
                  applying the procedure set out in Article 37(5) of Regulation (EU)
                  2018/1999, in consultation with the Member State concerned;
            (b)   that the Union greenhouse gas inventory system provides a transparent
                  aggregation of Member States' greenhouse gas emissions by sources and
                  removals by sinks as well as overviews of methodological descriptions for
                  Union key categories, and reflects in a transparent manner the contribution
                  of Member States' emissions by sources and removals by sinks to the
                  Union greenhouse gas inventory;
            (c)   that the total of the Union's greenhouse gas emissions by sources and
                  removals by sinks for a reporting year is equal to the sum of Member
                  States' greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks
EN                                                 5                                             EN
 ---pagebreak---               reported pursuant to paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of Article 26 of Regulation (EU)
              2018/1999 for that same year;
       (d)    that the Union greenhouse gas inventory includes a consistent time series of
              emissions by sources and removals by sinks for all reported years.
   2.  The Commission and the Member States shall increase, where possible, the
       comparability of national greenhouse gas inventories by seeking synergy of
       methods, activity data, notation keys and the allocation of emissions by sources
       and removals by sinks by Member States, where appropriate.
   3.  The quality assurance and quality control programme objectives of the Union
       inventory shall complement the quality assurance and quality control
       programmes objectives implemented by the Member States.
   4.  Member States shall ensure the quality of activity data, emission factors and
       other parameters used for their national greenhouse gas inventory.
                                                 Article 5
                                               Gap filling
   1.  The Commission estimates for completing the inventory data submitted by a
       Member State as referred to in Article 37(5) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 shall
       be based on the following methodologies and data:
       (a)    where a Member State has submitted in the previous reporting year a
              consistent time series of estimates for the relevant source category and:
               (i) that Member State has submitted an approximated greenhouse gas
               inventory for the year X – 1 pursuant to Article 26(2) of Regulation (EU)
               2018/1999 that includes the missing estimate, on the data from that
               approximated greenhouse gas inventory;
               (ii) that Member State has not submitted an approximated greenhouse gas
               inventory for the year X – 1 under Article 26(2) of Regulation (EU)
               2018/1999, but the Union has estimated approximated greenhouse gas
               emissions for the year X – 1 for that Member State in accordance with
               Article 26(2) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999, on the data from that Union
               approximated greenhouse gas inventory;
               (iii) the use of the data from the approximated greenhouse gas inventory of
               the Member State is not possible or may lead to a highly inaccurate
               estimation, for missing estimates in the energy sector, on the energy
               statistics data obtained in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008
               of the European Parliament and of the Council5;
               (iv) the use of the data from the approximated greenhouse gas inventory is
               not possible or may lead to a highly inaccurate estimation, for missing
               estimates in non-energy sectors, on estimation methodologies consistent
               with the technical advice on gap filling in Section 2.2.3 of the 2006 IPCC
               Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (Vol. 1) using, where
               appropriate, European statistics;
   5
      Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2008 on
      energy statistics (OJ L 304, 14.11.2008, p. 1).
EN                                                    6                                                EN
 ---pagebreak---             (b)    where an estimate of an emission by source or removal by sink for the
                   relevant category was subject to technical corrections in accordance with
                   Article 38(2)(d) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 in the latest review prior to
                   the submission and the Member State concerned has not submitted a
                   revised estimate, on the method used by the technical expert review team
                   to calculate the technical correction;
            (c)    where a consistent time series of reported estimates for the relevant source
                   category is not available, on estimation methodologies consistent with the
                   technical advice on gap filling in Section 2.2.3 of the 2006 IPCC
                   Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (Vol. 1).
   2.       The Commission shall prepare the estimates referred to in paragraph 1 by 31
            March of the reporting year in consultation and close cooperation with the
            Member State concerned.
   3.       The Member State concerned shall use the estimates referred to in paragraph 1
            for its submission of national inventories to the UNFCCC Secretariat pursuant to
            Article 26(4) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999.
                                               Article 6
                                            Initial checks
   The initial checks performed by the Commission pursuant to Article 37(4) of Regulation
   (EU) 2018/1999 may include:
   (a)      an assessment whether all categories required under the modalities, procedures
            and guidelines for the transparency framework for action and support referred to
            in Article 13 of the Paris Agreement set out in the Annex to Decision 18/CMA.1
            and all greenhouse gases referred to in Annex V of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999
            are reported by the Member State;
   (b)      an assessment whether emissions by sources and removals by sinks data time
            series are consistent;
   (c)      an assessment whether implied emission factors across Member States are
            comparable taking into account the IPCC default emission factors for different
            national circumstances;
   (d)      an assessment of the use of ‘Not Estimated’ notation keys where IPCC Tier 1
            methodologies exist and where the use of the notation key is not justified in
            accordance with point 32 of the Annex to Decision 18/CMA.1;
   (e)      an analysis of recalculations performed for the greenhouse gas inventory
            submission, including whether the recalculations are based on methodological
            changes;
   (f)      a comparison of the verified greenhouse gas emissions reported under the
            European Union's emission trading system with the greenhouse gas emissions
            reported pursuant to Article 26(3) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999;
   (g)      a comparison of the results of Eurostat's reference approach with the Member
            States' reference approach;
   (h)      a comparison of the results of Eurostat's sectoral approach with the Member
            States' sectoral approach;
EN                                                 7                                            EN
 ---pagebreak---    (i)       an assessment whether issues from earlier Union initial checks and reviews as
             well as recommendations from UNFCCC reviews have been implemented by the
             Member State;
   (j)       an assessment of the accuracy of Member States’ emissions by sources and
             removals by sinks estimates in relation to Union key categories;
   (k)       an assessment of the transparency and completeness of the methodological
             descriptions reported by Member States for the Union key categories.
   (l)       an assessment of monitoring and reporting of emissions by sources and removals
             by sinks in the land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector pursuant
             to Part 3 of Annex V to Regulation (EU) 2018/1999, including the assignment of
             key categories, Tier methodology applied, and a comparison of reported land use
             and land use change activity data with information derived from the Union and
             Member State programmes and surveys.
                                               Article 7
                                                Repeal
   Delegated Regulation (EU) No 666/2014 is repealed with effect from 1 January 2021, subject
   to the transitional provision laid down in Article 8 of this Regulation.
                                               Article 8
                                        Transitional provision
   By way of derogation from Article 7 of this Regulation, Articles 6 and 7 of Delegated
   Regulation (EU) No 666/2014 shall continue to have effect for the reports containing data
   required for the years 2019 and 2020.
                                               Article 9
                                   Entry into force and application
   This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in
   the Official Journal of the European Union.
   It shall apply from 1 January 2021.
   This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
   Done at Brussels, 8.5.2020
                                                 For the Commission
                                                 The President
                                                 Ursula VON DER LEYEN
EN                                                 8                                                EN
 ---documentbreak---                            EUROPEAN
                           COMMISSION
                                                  Brussels, 8.5.2020
                                                  C(2020) 2841 final
                                                  ANNEX
                                         ANNEX
                                           to the
                            Commission Delegated Regulation
    supplementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the
      Council with regard to values for global warming potentials and the inventory
   guidelines and with regard to the Union inventory system and repealing Commission
                         Delegated Regulation (EU) No 666/2014
EN                                                                                   EN
 ---pagebreak---                                       ANNEX
                              GLOBAL WARMING POTENTIALS
   Acronym, common name or chemical name    Global warming potential
   Carbon dioxide (CO2)                     1
   Methane (CH4)                            28
   Nitrous oxide (N2O)                      265
   Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)               23 500
   Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3)               16 100
   Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs):
   HFC-23 CHF3                              12 400
   HFC-32 CH2F2                             677
   HFC-41 CH3F                              116
   HFC-125 CHF2CF3                          3170
   HFC-134 CHF2CHF2                         1120
   HFC-134a CH2FCF3                         1300
   HFC-143 CH2FCHF2                         328
   HFC-143a CH3CF3                          4800
   HFC-152 CH2FCH2F                         16
   HFC-152a CH3CHF2                         138
   HFC-161 CH3CH2F                          4
   HFC-227ea CF3CHFCF3                      3350
   HFC-236cb CF3CF2CH2F                     1210
   HFC-236ea CF3CHFCHF2                     1330
   HFC-236fa CF3CH2CF3                      8060
   HFC-245fa CHF2CH2CF3                     858
   HFC-245ca CH2FCF2CHF2                    716
   HFC-365mfc CH3CF2CH2CF3                  804
EN                                       1                           EN
 ---pagebreak---    HFC-43-10mee CF3CHFCHFCF2CF3 or (C5H2F10) 1650
   Perfluorocarbons (PFCs):
   PFC-14, Perfluoromethane, CF4             6630
   PFC-116, Perfluoroethane, C2F6            11 100
   PFC-218, Perfluoropropane, C3F8           8900
   PFC-318, Perfluorocyclobutane, c-C4F8     9540
   Perfluorocyclopropane c-C3F6              9200
   PFC-3-1-10, Perfluorobutane, C4F10        9200
   PFC-4-1-12, Perfluoropentane, C5F12       8550
   PFC-5-1-14, Perfluorohexane, C6F14        7910
   PFC-9-1-18, C10F18                        7190
EN                                       2          EN