Abstract:

The new rules of the enhanced transparency framework of the Paris Agreement adopted at the end of 2018 significantly enhance the requirements for greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories consistency for developing countries. The authors recalculated the 2005 GHG inventory, which is the base year of China’s nationally determined contribution, based on the requirements for recalculation of GHG inventories in the IPCC inventory guidelines. The emissions of recalculated 2005 national GHG inventory was 8.015 billion tons of CO₂-eq (excluding LULUCF). It increased by 6.6% after recalculation, due to the addition of new sources or sinks, updating of some activity data and emission factors, and using updated methodologies. The energy sector has the greatest impact on the increase in total emissions after recalculation, with an increase of 426 million tons of CO₂-eq. The increase in CO₂ is mainly due to the revision of fossil fuel consumption in 2005 by the “third census”. The increase in CH₄ and N₂O emissions is mainly due to including new sources. In the future, China will carry out recalculations more frequently. It is suggested that the study of the time series consistency of China’s GHG inventory preparation should be strengthened in conjunction with the new guidelines to better support domestic climate change decision and to meet the compliance requirements under the future transparency framework.

Key words: Greenhouse gas (GHG), Inventory, Time series, Recalculations