Capacity Building for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories
Developing a national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory is a key first step toward understanding and managing national emissions. EPA works internationally to build capacity for GHG inventories by implementing projects that support countries working to establish, maintain, and improve sustainable national inventory systems and prepare high-quality GHG reports on a regular basis.
EPA employs a 'learning by doing' capacity building approach, which focuses on working directly with national inventory compilers and developing tools to address inventory challenges. This approach is based on over two decades of expertise gained from leading the development of the Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks and lessons learned from working alongside developing country experts around the world.
Through this approach, EPA supports the improvement of a country’s:
- Institutional capacity to establish, maintain, and improve a sustainable inventory management system that serves as the foundation for transparent, accurate, comparable, complete, and consistent GHG inventories; and
- Technical capacity to develop GHG emission estimates by providing technical assistance on methods, data collection, and documentation.
To help developing countries build institutional and technical capacity, EPA is currently expanding and developing GHG inventory tools and supporting bilateral technical assistance through the Transparency Accelerator initiative.
National GHG Inventories and Transparency
A complete and transparent national GHG inventory is an essential tool for understanding current emissions and past trends, projecting future emissions, and identifying sectors for cost-effective mitigation opportunities. A national inventory is also a required element in national reports to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
As part of the reporting requirements of the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) under the Paris Agreement, countries are required to report national GHG inventories following the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for National GHG Inventories starting in 2024. Countries will be required to submit national GHG inventories at least every two years (every year for developed countries) to help build trust and confidence that countries are taking action to meet their national climate targets under the Paris Agreement. EPA’s GHG inventory capacity building efforts will support countries as they work to establish, maintain, and improve sustainable national GHG inventory systems and prepare national GHG inventories at the rigor and frequency required by the Paris Agreement.
The Transparency Accelerator for Greenhouse Gas Inventories, developed jointly with the U.S. Department of State, is EPA’s latest international capacity building initiative on GHG inventories. Through the Transparency Accelerator, EPA is partnering with other U.S. Government Agencies, countries, and international organizations to develop and share inventory tools and to provide technical assistance to developing countries as they transition under the Paris Agreement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines. EPA's previous capacity building efforts have helped specific countries throughout Southeast Asia, South and Central America, and Eastern and Southern Africa to prepare high quality national GHG inventories.
Other Inventory Initiatives and Resources
U.S. GHG Emissions and Removals
Other U.S. Government Inventory Initiatives
Capacity Building Networks
- Climate Transparency Platform
- FAO and the Enhanced Transparency Framework
- Partnership on Transparency in the Paris Agreement
- UN-REDD Programme
Training and Support for Inventory Compilers
- IPCC National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Program
- UNFCCC GHG Support for Developing Countries
- UNFCCC Inventory Training Program
- Workshop on Greenhouse Gas Inventories in Asia
Funding Support
Questions
For questions or comments regarding EPA's capacity building initiative for national GHG inventories, email us.