Events

The Secretariat of the Partnership on Transparency in the Paris Agreement (PATPA) convened a three-day workshop on April 5-6-7, 2022 for the Asia Regional Group to provide detailed updates on the outcomes of the negotiations at COP26 on the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) and share information and guidance on various methods and tools used to collect and report on GHG emissions and removals from the AFOLU sector.

About 90 participants attended the three-day events to learn and exchange on best practices in the application of various tools and methods to improve activity data collection in the land use sector and enhance the capacities for national reporting on mitigation action in the land use sector. Peer-to-peer learning was facilitated on exploring the challenges and solutions for the transition from the current MRV system under the UNFCCC to the ETF of the Paris Agreement.

The key takeaways from the guest speakers and discussions are summarized below:

• At the COP26 in Glasgow, the Modalities, Procedures and Guidelines (MPGs) for the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) have been agreed, including:
  • The Common Reporting Tables (CRT) for the electronic reporting of GHG emissions and removals and the Common Tabular Formats (CTFs) for the electronic reporting of the information necessary to track progress made in implementing and achieving NDCs
  • The Common Tabular Formats for the electronic reporting of the information on financial, technology development and transfer and capacity-building support provided and mobilized, as well as support needed and received
  • The outlines for the biennial transparency report (BTR), national inventory document (NID) and technical expert review report
  • The training programme for technical experts participating in the technical expert review of BTRs
• Additionally, agreement was reached on the provision of support to developing country Parties for reporting, related capacity building and implementing the ETF:
  • CGE to provide technical advice to training programme for technical experts participating in TER of BTRs
  • Guidance to the GEF to provide support for transparency, including under GEF-8
  • A new agenda item to consider “provision of financial and technical support to developing country Parties for reporting and related capacity building” starting from CMA 4
• The Biennial Transparency Report (BTR) Guidance and Roadmap Tool  supports countries in planning the preparation of their first BTR through providing guidance with six main steps on the design and set-up of the national transparency system required for BTR and estimating the necessary time for implementing the BTR. The PATPA Secretariat and FAO are providing support to countries in making use of the BTR tool to get ready for preparing their first BTR
• The UNFCCC Secretariat is working on a “reporting tool” (software) to be used by countries for the electronic reporting of GHG emissions/removals. Coordination is ongoing to facilitate interoperability between the UNFCCC reporting tools and the Inventory Software of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
• The 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National GHG Inventories  shall be used and the 2013 Supplement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National GHG Inventories: Wetlands  are encouraged to be used by all parties. The 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines  can be used on a voluntary basis
• National land classification systems can be adapted with the IPCC land use categories based on specific steps, using the IPCC 2006 Guidelines, the Inventory Software tool and making use of the information from land cover maps that are generated by remote sensing or national survey data.
• For presenting consistent GHG emissions/removals time series developing countries can make use of the flexibility in light of national capacities to report data covering, at a minimum, the reference year/period for country’s NDC and a consistent annual time series from at least 2020 onwards
• Land-use conversion matrix can be developed by countries to facilitate reporting of the different land uses and land use changes within all 6 IPCC land use categories. For this IPCC provides 3 different approaches for a consistent representation of land use areas
• To address the key challenge of missing data and information within time series, the 2006 IPCC Guidelines offer several splicing techniques: Overlap, Surrogate date, Interpolation and Trend extrapolation available in Chapter 5: Time series consistency
• Collect Earth and LOGIC Tool developed by FAO  are free-of-charge open-source programs that can help countries in collecting, managing and analyzing land cover and land-use information through an augmented visual interpretation of remotely sensed data. Collect Earth allows generation of land maps and the LOGIC Tool (in final stages of development) creates tables for land representation for GHG estimates in the LULUCF sector
• Countries expressed the need for further learning from best available experience and access to training and capacity development on the use of different tools and methods for collecting and processing LULUCF data for correctly estimating GHG emissions and removals

The workshop was organized with the collaboration and joint efforts of our long-term partners - the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Research Center of Korea (GIR) and Ricardo Energy & Environment. We would like to express our sincere thanks to the co-organizers and also the distinguished speakers –Tugba Icmeli, UNFCCC Secretariat, Carlos Essus, PATPA Secretariat, Iordanis Tzamtzis and Alfonso Sanchez Paus, FAO, Sekai Ngarize, Ricardo Energy & Environment, Moonjung Kim, Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Research Center of Korea (GIR).

Below you will find the list of presentations made at each session:

Day 1:

Introduction PATPA, Roziya Kirgizbekova (PATPA)

ETF Outcomes COP26, Tugba Icmeli (UNFCCC)

BTR Guidance and Roadmap Tool, Carlos Essus (PATPA)

Day 2:

Understanding the IPCC 2006 Guidelines for LU, Iordanis Tzamtzis (FAO)

South Korea's experience with the IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Moon-Jung Kim (GIR)

Adapting national land classification to IPCC LU categories, Sekai Ngarize (Ricardo E&E)

Example Common Reporting Tables LULUCF.xls

Day 3:

Time Series Consistency_IPCC Splicing Techniques, Sekai Ngarize (Ricardo E&E)

Practice sheet_Dummy data Time Series Consistency.xls

CollectEarth_Multi-purpospe Land Monitoring Tool, Alfonso Sanchez-Paus (FAO)

LOGIC Tool_Land Representation for LULUCF, Iordanis Tzamtzis (FAO)

PATPA Next Steps for Asia Regional Group, Roziya Kirgizbekova (PATPA)

You can watch the recording of the events by clicking on the links below:

Recording day 2