Second National Communications to UNFCCC: Stock-taking Exercise and Enabling Activity

Description of Intervention

Parties to the Convention must submit national reports on implementation of the Convention to the COP. The required contents of national communications and the timetable for their submission are different for Annex I and non-Annex I Parties. This is in accordance with the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" enshrined in the Convention.

The core elements of the national communications for both Annex I and non-Annex I Parties are information on emissions and removals of GHGs and details of the activities a Party has undertaken to implement the Convention. National communications usually contain information on national circumstances, vulnerability assessment, financial resources and transfer of technology, and education, training and public awareness; but the ones from Annex I Parties additionally contain information on policies and measures. Annex I Parties that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol must include supplementary information in their national communications and their annual inventories of emissions and removals of GHGs to demonstrate compliance with the Protocol’s commitments. Annex I Parties are required to submit information on their national inventories annually, and national communications periodically, according to dates set by the COP. There are no fixed dates for the submission of national communications of non-Annex I Parties, although these documents should be submitted within four years of the initial disbursement of financial resources to assist them in preparing their national communications.

Reporting and review requirements under the Convention encompass the following elements:
• National communications which contain information on national GHG emissions, climate-related policies and measures, GHG projections, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change, financial assistance and technology transfer to non-Annex I Parties, and actions on raising public awareness on climate change; and
• National GHG inventories, which contain information on GHG emissions, such as activity data, emission factors and methodologies, used to estimate these emissions.

Problems to be Addressed

Climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Aims

To undertake a baseline study for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation. There are three components under this project:
• Undertaking a national greenhouse gas inventory;
• Undertaking abatement analysis; and
• Undertaking vulnerability and adaptation assessments.

Objectives

The objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is to stabilise GHG concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent and reduce dangerous human-induced interference with the climate system. The ability of the international community to achieve this objective is dependent on an accurate knowledge of GHG emissions trends, and on our collective ability to alter these trends. In accordance with Articles 4 and 12 of the Convention and the relevant decisions of the Conference of the Parties (COP), Annex I Parties to the Convention submit to the secretariat national greenhouse gas inventories of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol. In addition, Annex I Parties provide inventory data in summary form in their national communications under the Convention. These inventories are subject to an annual technical review process.

How it fits into the EbA concept

Reporting on mitigation to climate change

Relevant Publications

Web page: Guidline of national report submission for Parties to the Convention  on implementation of the Convention to the Conference of the Parties (COP).