Presentation from November 2020 CCXG Special Event

1. Climate Change Expert Group www.oecd.org/env/cc/ccxg.htm
Reporting national GHG inventories through
Common Reporting Tables (CRTs):
Open questions and sticking points
UN Climate Dialogues 2020 – Special Event
25 Nov 2020
Chiara Falduto (CCXG) and Sina Wartmann (Independent Consultant)
Based on: Reporting national GHG inventories through Common Reporting
Tables (CRTs): An assessment of CRT reporting options through worked
examples”, by Falduto, C., S. Wartmann and M. Rocha (2020, draft)

2. 2 Climate Change Expert Group
Outline
• Context and overview of current Parties’ reporting approach;
• Relevant criteria for developing and testing CRT options;
• Overview of the scenarios analysed in the paper;
• Open questions related to structure of the CRTs;
• Open questions related to application of flexibility within CRTs
• Main findings;
• Conclusions.

3. 3 Climate Change Expert Group
• CRTs would include mostly quantitative information;
• They accompany the National Inventory Document (NID)
• The Enhanced Transparency Framework introduces a common
reporting framework for all Parties to the Paris Agreement.
Context: CRTs for national GHG inventories
The SBSTA is requested to develop common reporting tables (CRTs) for the electronic
reporting of information on national GHG inventories.
Decision 18/CMA.1

4. 4 Climate Change Expert Group
Current approach: The CRFs and the CRF Reporter
• Five sectors: Energy, Industrial processes and Product Use (IPPU), Agriculture, Land
Use, Land-use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) and Waste;
• A total of 48 tables spread across 71 Excel sheets;
• The CRFs are generated by the CRF Reporter
CRTs are to be developed “talking into account the existing […] Common Reporting
Formats”, i.e. the CRFs currently in use by Annex I Parties.
Decision 18/CMA.1
Sectoral
background
data tables
Sectoral
summary
tables
Summary
report
tables
Cross-
cutting
tables
Lowering level of detail

5. 5 Climate Change Expert Group
• Non-Annex I Parties are encouraged to use Tables 1 and 2 included in the
annex to decision 17/CP.8
• i.e. Two summary tables that provide an overview of GHG emissions and
removals by sector/category and greenhouse gas
• Do not use a common reporting software
• ¼ of Non-Annex I Parties use the IPCC Software
• Other countries use other national software / ad-hoc Excel worksheet
Current approach: Non-Annex I Reporting

6. 6 Climate Change Expert Group
Criteria for developing CRT options
1. Providing a common format for reporting;
2. Facilitating improved reporting and transparency over time;
3. Promoting transparency, accuracy, completeness, consistency and
comparability (TACCC);
4. Ensuring that Parties maintain at least the current frequency and quality of
reporting;
5. Facilitating machine readability and/or automated assessment;
6. Facilitating the technical expert review (TER)
7. Limiting scope and complexity of changes compared to current CRFs so to
allow for the CRT Reporter to be developed in time;
8. Allowing to voluntarily include new categories / gases from subsequent versions
of the 2006 IPCC GLs
MPGsandParis
Agreement
Lessonslearned
fromcurrent
experience

7. 7 Climate Change Expert Group
Scenarios analysed in the paper
• Reporting sectoral background data tables
• Reporting the NDC reference year/period
• Reporting on GHG trends in the summary tables
• Reporting using the 2019 IPCC Refinement
• Applying a lower insignificance level
• Applying a lower KCA threshold
• Not reporting certain gases
• Reporting a shorter time series
• Reporting on the use of flexibility
• Each scenario is supported by
multiple worked examples that
assess how different reporting
approaches would test against
the eight criteria;
• The worked examples show
how CRTs could be filled in with
relevant information by Parties,
considering different Party
profiles.
Scenariosrelatedto general issues:
Scenariosrelatedto flexibility:

8. 8 Climate Change Expert Group
Open questions related to structure of the CRTs
• Which tables would need to be included / mandatory?
• Background data tables
• Tables for indirect GHGs.
• What sectoral structure?
• Reporting on LULUCF and Agriculture separately vs. reporting on AFOLU
• Whether and, if so, how to report a NDC reference year
• How to present GHG emission trends
• Adapting to the IPCC 2019 Refinement.

9. 9 Climate Change Expert Group
Background data tables
• Information to be provided is already available to Parties;
• Level of detail of information to be provided varies across Parties depending on
Tier used and thus reporting capacity.
No increased reporting burden
Providing a common format for reporting;
Promote TACCC principles.

10. 10 Climate Change Expert Group
Reporting a NDC reference year/period
• Paragraph 57 of the MPGs provides Parties who need it in light of their capacities the flexibility
options to report a shorter time series, including, among other, at least the “reference
year/period for its NDC under Article 4 of the Paris Agreement”.
• The reference year/period for the NDC is not clearly defined by any decision.
Option 1 Option 2
The CRT Reporter generates, as
applicable, a “reference year” column.
Parties indicate, as applicable, their
reference year in a documentation box
Providingacommonformatforreporting;Allowing
theCRTReportertobedevelopedintime.
PromotingTACCC;FacilitatingtheTER;Facilitating
machinereadabilityandautomatedassessment.
PromotingTACCC;AllowingfortheCRTReporterto
bedevelopedintime.
Facilitatingmachinereadabilityandautomated
assessment.
OR

11. 11 Climate Change Expert Group
Reporting a NDC reference year/period

12. 12 Climate Change Expert Group
Open questions related to operationalising
flexibility
• Flexibility options related to
• Key category analysis
• Significance threshold
• Gases reported
• Time series reported
• How to report on flexibility used on a specific CRT worksheet?
• How to provide an overview on flexibility options used?

13. 13 Climate Change Expert Group
Selected options for operationalising flexibility
Informational or methodological
element
How flexibility can be operationalised within CRTs
Key Category Analysis (KCA) Adding a cell to specify threshold used for KCA in Table 7 of the CRFs
Insignificance threshold Using both a “not estimated” and a “flexibility” notation key
Reported greenhouse gases Using “flexibility” notation key
Time series
Including columns also for the years that are not being reported and using “flexibility”
notation key
How to report on flexibility
used on a specific CRT
worksheet?
Using documentation boxes OR using custom-footnotes
How to provide an overview
on flexibility options used
Using a (Common) Reporting Table

14. 14 Climate Change Expert Group
Dealing with cells not filled due to using a flexibility option –
Not reporting certain gases
Providing a
common
format for
reporting
Facilitating
improved
reporting +
transparenc
y over time
Promoting
TACCCa
Maintining
at least the
current
frequency
and quality
of reporting
Facilitating
the
technical
expert
review
Facilitating
machine
readability /
automatize
d
assessment
Allowing
relevant
reporting
tools to be
prepared in
time to
facilitate
reporting
the first
BTR
Allowing
including
subsequent
versions or
refinements
of the IPCC
2006 GL
D. Dealing with cells not filled due to using a flexibility optionc
Empty rows / columns
are deleted
-- -- - 0 -- 0 -- N/A
The cells are left empty
++ + 0 0 + 0 + N/A
A notation key is used
++ ++ ++ 0 ++ 0 + N/A

15. 15 Climate Change Expert Group
CRT reporting approaches: Main findings
Deleting rows/
columns
Usingnotation
keys
Usingdocumentation
boxes / footnotes
Partiesamendthe
structureof the CRTs
TACCCprinciples arepromoted
TER is facilitated
Machine readabilityis enhanced
A common formatfor reportingis provided
A lower number of criteria
aresatisfied
• More than one approach could be combined to satisfy a larger number of
criteria (e.g. using notation keys + documentation boxes);
• Each reporting approach may present variants (e.g. using a combination of
two different notation keys).

16. 16 Climate Change Expert Group
Conclusions
• Current CRFs represent a good starting point for the development of CRTs
• Important to consider that the CRF system is an uneven starting point across developed and
developing countries. Need to ensure that all Parties have the opportunity to become
familiar with it.
• CRTs based on current CRFs can accommodate all flexibility options with limited changes.
• The reporting software used to generate the CRTs (i.e. the CRT Reporter) significantly
facilitates reporting using CRTs
• Considering functions of the software is fundamental when discussing CRTs;
• Important to consider that developing a software takes time. More sophisticated reporting
solutions within CRTs might be implementable only in the longer term.
• Important to design tables that are as standardised as possible
• Trying to avoid, to the extent possible, the inclusion of information in a narrative format (e.g.
footnotes / documentation boxes) alone.
• Where cells are left empty due to the application of flexibility options using a flexibility
notation key scores best against criteria.

17. 17 Climate Change Expert Group
Thank You!
chiara.falduto@oecd.org
sw@sinawartmann.org

18. 18 Climate Change Expert Group
Sectoral Background Data Tables

19. 19 Climate Change Expert Group
Sectoral Background Data Tables

20. 20 Climate Change Expert Group
Adapting to the 2019 IPCC Refinement
• Paragraph 20 of the MPGs mandate the use of any subsequent version or refinement of the
IPCC guidelines agreed upon by the CMA;
• The 2019 IPCC Refinement has not been adopted by the CMA yet, however, designing CRTs
that allow voluntarily including newly added categories could be considered to also promote
completeness and improved reporting over time as required by the MPGs.
Case 1 Case 2
Reporting on new categories using the
category “Other”
Amending tables to allow reporting on
new gases
Facilitatingmachinereadabilityandautomated
assessment
Providingcommonformatfor reporting;Promoting
TACCC;FacilitatingtheTER;AllowingfortheCRT
Reportertobedevelopedintime.
Facilitatingimprovedreportingovertime;
Facilitatingmachinereadabilityandautomated
assessment.
Providingacommonformatforreporting;Allowing
fortheCRTReporter tobedevelopedintime.
AND

21. 21 Climate Change Expert Group
Adapting to the 2019 IPCC Refinement

22. 22 Climate Change Expert Group
Adapting to the 2019 IPCC Refinement

23. 23 Climate Change Expert Group
Example: Dealing with cells not filled due to using a flexibility option – Not
reporting HFCs, PFCs
Full table 2(II) from the current CRF

24. 24 Climate Change Expert Group
Dealing with cells not filled due to using a flexibility option – Not reporting HFCs,
PFCs
Table 2(II) after deleting empty HFC and
PFC columns
Table 2(II) after deleting empty HFC and PFC
columns and rows for categories emitting only
HFCs / PFCs