Introduction
Updated: 19.04.2024 12:00 CEST (regular update)
International conventions adopted to control emissions of greenhouse gas (GHG) - United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN FCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol and its Paris Agreement - require unified, transparent, and verifiable way of greenhouse gas inventories. Methodology of national GHG inventories [2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Vol. 1-5, IPCC 2006; 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories; Good Practice Guidance and Uncertainty Management in National GHG Inventories, IPCC 2000; Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry, IPCC 2003, 2013 Supplement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories: Wetlands, IPCC 2013], which is available on the IPCC website and called “IPCC methodology” (see http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/), is stipulated by above mentioned international agreements. National GHG inventories should be neither overestimated, nor underestimated and they should not be influenced by uncertainty as far as possible.
Under Article 5 of the Kyoto Protocol, each party in Annex I (developed countries and countries in transition) shall implement a national system for estimating anthropogenic emissions by sources and removal by sinks of all greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol by 1 January 2007. In addition, for EU member states, under Decision No. 280/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, the national system had to be in place by the end of 2005. In the Czech Republic, the national system was established in accordance with this Decision in December 2005. In this text, the national system is also referred to as the national inventory system (NIS).
Under decision 19/CMP.1 (FCCC/KP/CMP/2005/8/Add.3), the NIS has to ensure the functioning of all institutional, legal, and procedural arrangements required to evaluate GHG emissions and removals. NIS is designed and operated to ensure the inventory quality and its transparency, consistency, comparability and accuracy through planning, preparation and management of inventory activities.
In the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Environment (MoE) is the national entity with overall responsibility for the NIS. The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI), founded by the MoE, is designated as the coordinating and managing body responsible for the compilation of the national greenhouse gas inventory and reporting its results.
Under decision 13/CMP.1 , adopted at the Conference of Parties of the Kyoto Protocol (KP) in 2005, each Party of KP (listed in Annex B of KP) is obligated to submit the “Initial Report of the Party under the Kyoto Protocol”. The Initial report for each Party has to describe inter alia its national system (NIS) including evidence that the NIS is fully in place as required by the decision 19/CMP.1. The Initial report also contains calculation of assigned amount (number of emission units AAUs to be issued to the Party) which is based on GHG emissions in the base year 1990 (base year for F-gases is 1995), taking into account the KP reduction target: 8 % for the Czech Republic.
As prescribed by the Kyoto Protocol, this Initial report (together with the latest outputs of GHG inventories) has to be subjected to the review by the Expert review team (ERT). If the ERT concludes that Party's emission estimates in some sub-sectors of the base year are overestimated (which would enhance the Party's assigned amount), the ERT is entitled to do "adjustment". It means that overestimated emission estimate can be corrected by values evaluated by the ERT based on its own expertise. The Czech Republic submitted the Initial report in time as required and it was subjected by the "in-country" review at the end of February 2007. During the review the Czech team was asked by the ERT to do a few revisions of emission estimates in a few cases. The Czech team respected this recommendation and submitted revised data and relevant assigned amount calculation in time. Accordingly the ERT approved the Czech NIS without application of "adjustment".
Next Initial report was submitted in the first half of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, in 2015 (second period 2013-2020, reduction commitment 20 %). Same as the first one, even this Initial report was subject to a detailed review together with the official inventory. The review of Initial report was held in September 2016. The results of this review were finally available in July 2017.
In December 2015, the Paris Agreement was adopted by the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change and replaced the previously existing Kyoto Protocol after 2020. Under the Paris Agreement, the Czech Republic, as a member of the EU, has agreed to jointly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels with other EU Member States. In addition, EU member states are bound by Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 on Energy Union Governance and Climate Action. Currently, the GHG inventory is carried out in full compliance with the requirements of the Paris Agreement and specifically the negotiated modalities, procedures and guidelines (negotiated in Katowice, 2018).