Why do we need a GHG Emissions Inventory?
The National Greenhouse Gases (GHG) Emissions Inventory is the key tool for monitoring and reporting on emissions from sources and removals by sinks. The inventory reporting format is based on international reporting procedures agreed to by the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and using the calculation methodologies as set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Guidelines. The GHG Inventory covers emissions and removals estimates for a time series starting from 1990 from the following sectors: Energy (including Transport), Industrial Processes, Solvents and Other Products Use, Agriculture, Waste and the Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector.
In addition to sectors, the GHG Inventory is also a mechanism to monitor emissions by different Greenhouse Gases. The GHG for which emissions and removals are estimated in national inventories include: Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous oxide (N2O), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6). Emissions of a number of indirect greenhouse such as Carbon monoxide (CO) non-Methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) and Nitrogen oxides (NOx) and Sulphur dioxide (SO2) are also reported.
The latest GHG Inventory for Malta can be accessed here:
• National Inventory Report (NIR);
• Common Reporting Format (CRF) tables.
What is the Global Warming Potential of Greenhouse Gases?
The different Greenhouse Gases (GHG) have different capacities to cause global warming, depending on their radiative properties, their molecular weight and their lifetime in the atmosphere.
A simple working method provides for the calculation of the relative contribution of a unit emission of each gas, relative to the effect of a unit emission of CO2 integrated over a fixed time period. A 100-year time horizon has been chosen by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in view of the relatively long time scale for addressing climate change. The calculation method established the Global Warming Potential (GWP) for each individual GHG. The GWP is defined as the warming influence over a set time period of any GHG, relative to that of CO2.
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