think climate. think change.
Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of the Environment and Heritage, December 2006
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The Australian Greenhouse Office has adopted internationally-specifi ed provisions as the basis for the development of Australia’s national inventory systems. This approach ensures that the Australian National Greenhouse Gas Inventory used for the purpose of meeting Australia’s domestic 108% Kyoto target meets the standards of international best practice.
A national inventory system includes all institutional, legal and procedural arrangements …for estimating anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of all greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol, and for reporting and archiving inventory information. Australia’s national inventory systems are applicable to the full range of National Greenhouse Accounts that are produced each year by the Australian Greenhouse Office.
Australia’s National Inventory Report - Revised 2004 has been published simultaneously with this report and provides a full time series of greenhouse gas emission estimates for Australia for the period 1990 - 2004. This inventory determines Australia’s base year (1990) estimate of emissions and has been submitted for international expert review. Some additional information is required to support the estimation of this inventory, and the process of reconciling future inventories with the Kyoto target, and this information is set out in Section 2.
Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory provides annual estimates of Australia’s net greenhouse gas emissions and is prepared under the reporting provisions applicable to the Kyoto Protocol. This inventory will be used to assess progress towards Australia’s Kyoto emissions target.
In conjunction with the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, the Australian Greenhouse Office simultaneously publishes a range of supporting emission estimates that, together, constitute Australia’s National Greenhouse Accounts. In 2007, in addition to the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2005, the Australian Greenhouse Office will also prepare:
These documents are prepared under the AGO Emissions Data Management Plan and will be available on the AGO website www.greenhouse.gov.au/inventory. They provide additional information with respect to Australia’s emissions on both a regional and industry basis, as well as with respect to Australia’s domestic policy commitments.
Some of the key features of the System include:
The Australian Greenhouse Office has developed its National Inventory Systems with the aim of conforming with the international specifi cations set out in COP Decision 19/CMP.1 Annex (reported in FCCC/KP/ CMP/2005/8/Add.3) as part of its efforts to support the preparation of the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory and the National Greenhouse Accounts more generally.
The objectives of national systems for the estimation of emissions and removals include:
This document aims to elaborate Australia’s inventory institutions and inventory planning, preparation and documentation systems and to provide assurance as to the quality of Australia’s national greenhouse accounts.
The Australian inventory is supported by a set institutional arrangements which is designed close co-ordination of the compilation of the effi cient emissions data management, broadly quality assurance processes and secure and data collections.
The compilation of Australia’s greenhouse gas inventory is undertaken by the Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO) in the Department of the Environment Heritage using the Australian Greenhouse Emissions Information System (AGEIS). The AGEIS centralises emissions estimation, inventory compilation, and data storage processes into a single system. been used to consolidate Australia’s emissions estimation methodologies and fully-integrated control procedures into the compilation process. AGEIS provides high transparency levels for inventory, with emissions data from the AGEIS for the set of National Inventory accounts publicly accessible through a dynamic web interface www.greenhouse.gov.au/inventory.
The National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Committee, which comprises representatives of the Australian, and Territory governments and which has been in place since the early 1990s, is the principal of review for the report prior to its release. The also circulated prior to submission to other government departments and agencies and state experts through the National Greenhouse Inventory Committee.
Originally, expert working groups developed Australian emission estimation methodologies. work has been subsequently reviewed by a of technical experts in research institutions, and industry on a rolling basis and in accordance the AGO’s Inventory Improvement Plan (section Key modifi cations or refi nements to the methodology are adopted following consultation with the Greenhouse Gas Inventory Committee.
Reliability of data collection processes is an important consideration for inventory preparation to ensure accurate and time series-consistent emissions data (section 3). The Australian inventory is well served in this regard. The major sources of activity data are published by key national economic statistics agencies: - the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
Features of the Australian System
The AGO has instituted an annual cycle of evaluation through the preparation of an Evaluation of Outcomes document, providing a process for quality assurance and feedback for improvement to the National Greenhouse Accounts. The Accounts are assessed against explicit quality objectives which take into account, inter alia, detailed estimates of uncertainty surrounding Australia’s emissions data; UNFCCC Expert Review processes, which aim to review and improve the quality of all Annex I inventories in an open and facilitative manner on an annual basis; and an assessment of Australia’s estimation methodologies against IPCC guidelines, international practice and available data (see sections 6, 7 and 8).
The AGEIS is facilitating the continued development of the National Greenhouse Accounts for Australia with the aim of providing additional information for users and has the benefi t of enhancing the transparency, consistency and comparability of the national inventory. The national emissions accounting framework which supports the construction of the accounts is set out in section 10.
