ERG Supports Refinements to International Greenhouse Gas Reporting Guidelines

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently held its 49th Session in Kyoto, Japan, where the Panel considered and accepted the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. This report updates the methodology governments use to estimate and report their greenhouse gas emissions and removals under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change processes, such as the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement.

ERG’s own Deb Bartram served as a coordinating lead author for Volume 5: Waste, focusing on refinements associated with wastewater treatment operations, solid waste, and incineration. This meeting culminated a 2.5-year process, in which 280 scientists and experts from 47 countries evaluated advances in available scientific data, as well as changes in processes and technologies, to identify appropriate refinements to improve the accuracy of inventory estimates.

“The 2019 Refinement will improve this transparency and reporting process by ensuring that the methodology used to determine these inventories is based on the latest science,” said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee.

Learn more about the session.