Special Issue "Challenges and Advances in the Preparation, Management, and Review of Greenhouse Gases and Air Pollutant Emission Inventories"

Dear Colleagues,

Emission inventories play a significant role in assessing the effects of anthropogenic activity on atmospheric pollution and climate change. They are an important tool for identifying the source of pollutants and assessing the pollution load in a defined area at a particular time. In response to obligations from international conventions and protocols, annual schemes of reporting national total emissions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for greenhouse gases (GHGs) and to the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP) for air pollutants have been developed. In addition, countries need to forecast their emissions and assess the impact of mitigation policies and measures in order to define their low-carbon development strategies and air pollution control programs.  

To compile an emission inventory, all sources of the pollutants must be identified and quantified. GHG emission inventories are based on the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for National GHG Inventories and the recent 2019 Refinement. Air pollutant inventories are based on emission guidebooks such as the EMEP/EEA air pollutant emission inventory guidebook and the AP-42 Compilation of Air Pollutant Emissions Factors. The reporting and reviewing of inventories will be required of many more countries under the Paris Agreement. In 2015, at COP 21, the Parties, aiming to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, adopted the Paris Agreement, and through it, established the Enhanced Transparency Framework. A core arrangement of the transparency framework, which is expected to build mutual trust and confidence among the Parties of the agreement, is the communication of national inventories, which will be used as the tool to track progress made in implementing the National Determined Contributions (NDCs).

This Special Issue aims to collect original research and review papers on emission inventories and forecasting, and the assessment of mitigation policies for GHGs and air pollutants. All studies that are related to the improvement of emission inventories through the use of advanced methods and models, the forecasting of GHGs/air pollutants in key sectors, and the assessment of the impact of mitigation policies and measures, especially in developing countries, are welcome.

Dr. Ioannis Sempos (Sebos)
Dr. Athena Progiou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• GHG and air pollutants emission inventories
• emission projections
• assessment of the impact of mitigation policies
• low carbon strategies
• Paris Agreement Enhanced Transparency Framework
• air pollution control programs

Title: A "fit for purpose" approach for reporting under the Enhanced Transparency Framework
Authors: Lisa Hanle and Tinus Pulles
Abstract: The Paris Agreement (PA) requests all Parties to submit every two years a report on the emissions of greenhouse gases. As was the case for the reporting under the Kyoto Protocol, these inventory submissions will be reviewed. To this end, the Parties are developing a so-called Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF). Extrapolation of the reporting and review process now in place for the developed Parties to all Parties under the PA may lead to an unavailable demand for experts and resources, jeopardizing Parties' abilities to achieve their climate objectives. This paper will introduce a "fit for purpose" approach to reporting and review under the ETF that will ensure the confidence that each Party's submission provides the information needed to understand their progress towards fulfilling the obligations under the PA.