The EU Legal Frameworks - The Sustainability of Renewable Energy in Europe - page 27

Below there are briefly set out the main provisions and the most important in-
struments of the Kyoto Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol has established that Annex I parties should achieve a nation-
al GHG inventories system for estimating emissions caused by economic activities
by January 2007. The inventories are prepared on the basis of so-called activity data
(such as industrial production, cultivated areas, etc.).
The Kyoto Protocol sets that only the methods defined by the IPCC have official
status for the preparation of inventories. The preparation of the inventories is man-
datory and must include data on emissions in 1990 and each year thereafter, up to 2
years prior to their communication.
In particular, the inventories of Annex I countries must cover the emissions and
removals of GHG listed in the Kyoto Protocol, and they must also contain informa-
tion on GHG such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, and non-
methane volatile organic compounds.
Annual inventories of Annex I countries include two parts:
• The common reporting format (CRF), standardized formats for the transmission
of inventories as a series of tables and calculation containing only numeric data
• The national inventory report, explanatory reports on methodologies used for the
compilation of inventories on sources of data and information on the institutional
structures that have followed in the preparation of inventories and procedures of
quality control that have been applied.
The national GHG inventories system also facilitates international processes of ver-
ification, in which estimates of GHG are subject in order to review its compliance
with the properties of transparency, consistency, comparability, completeness, and
accuracy in the implementation, as explicitly requested by the UNFCCC and IPCC
Guidelines.
The UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol require parties to periodically prepare
reports, called national communications. These reports must contain information
and assessments on emissions and must describe national policies in relation to
climate change.
The requirements for the preparation of reports range from Annex I countries to
non-Annex I.
To the former, it requires accuracy in the description of the measures envisaged
to achieve the targets. Annex I countries must also prepare reports with all the aid
provided to non-Annex I.
In contrast, the non-Annex I countries must communicate in their national re-
ports only the types of sources that cause emissions of GHG, along with general
comments on the state of economic policy.
Moreover, the Kyoto Protocol establishes that both inventories and national
communications of Annex I parties should be subject to checks by review groups
established for that purpose. These groups prepare the so-called compilation and
synthesis reports on national communications.