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2021-7-20

MOEJ and NIES held the 18th Workshop on Greenhouse Gas Inventories in Asia (WGIA18)

(July 20, 2021, Tokyo) The Ministry of the Environment, Japan (MOEJ), and the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) virtually held the 18th Workshop on Greenhouse Gas Inventories in Asia (WGIA18) from July 8, 2021 to July 14, 2021, with the aim of improving the accuracy of greenhouse gas inventories in Asian countries and promoting regional cooperation. Approximately 100 people participated in this year’s workshop: government officials and researchers from 15 WGIA member countries including Japan, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and international organizations. They held discussions on 1) greenhouse gas inventories in the Biennial Update Reports, submitted by developing countries, 2) experiences in the application of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines, 3) implementation rules related to the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) under the Paris Agreement, to support the improvement of the ability of participating countries in transparency-related matters, and to further strengthen the network of Asian countries.

SAKAGUCHI Yoshiteru, Director of Decarbonized Society Promotion Office, MOEJ said:
WGIA has contributed to the construction and consolidation of a network of officials and researchers involved in greenhouse gas inventory preparation in Asian countries and other institutes. It has also contributed to identifying and solving relevant common issues to the inventories. We expect that WGIA will continuously assume a greater role to support all WGIA participating countries in taking important steps toward global climate action. Japan will continue to foster cooperation with other Asian countries in the environmental field.

HATANAKA Elsa, Manager of the Greenhouse Gas Inventory Office of Japan, NIES commented:
The Workshop in itself is a mutual learning opportunity for Japan, because we get to hear how our Asian colleagues overcome the challenges they face. They are not necessarily the same as Japan’s experience, and by hearing theirs, we get to reflect on our own system for inventory preparation and how it could be improved.

WGIA has been held since 2003. The outcome of this year’s workshop is as follows.

In the sector-specific mutual learning sessions, participants learned about partner country’s methodologies and national systems including data collection and quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC), which will lead to inventory improvement.

In the plenary sessions, it was confirmed that countries were still faced with common challenges regarding acquisition of activity data, uncertainty analysis, development of country-specific emission factors, establishment of QA/QC procedures and national systems. Participants confirmed the issues on the reporting requirements of the ETF under the Paris Agreement. They shared their experiences on the transition to the new guidelines and recognized the importance of building robust national systems. They also confirmed the importance of allocating sufficient time to the preparation for the transition from early stages. In addition, they identified the necessity to fill data gaps in the time-series by using techniques such as splicing, provided in the IPCC Guidelines, to assure data quality. They confirmed the relevance of drawing from various international resources and capacity building opportunities for the preparation of the Biennial Transparency Reports under the ETF.

Participants confirmed the importance of continuing and developing WGIA for the improvement of each country’s inventory accuracy, considering the necessity to build more capacity in order to respond to the requirements of the ETF under the Paris Agreement.


Member countries which participated in WGIA18:
Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam, Japan (MOEJ, NIES, and other organizations).

Other countries and international organizations which participated in the workshop:
US EPA, IPCC Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (IPCC TFI), Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

More information is available at the following webpage:
https://www.nies.go.jp/gio/en/wgia/index.html

Decarbonized Society Promotion Office, Global Environment Bureau, Ministry of the Environment, Japan
Tel: +81-3-5521-8244

Greenhouse Gas Inventory Office of Japan, Center for Global Environmental Research, Earth System Division, National Institute for Environmental Studies
Email:www-gio(please append ‘@nies.go.jp’ to complete the email address)

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