Guidelines are formally mandated for use in preparing national GHG inventories under the UNFCCC. The 2006 guidelines updated 1996 guidelines. The 2006 guidelines consist of two volumes, worksheets for developing an inventory, and a software tool.
- Volume 1 contains general guidance, including regarding how to deal with uncertainties (Chapter 3), the choice of methods (Chapter 4), and QA/QC (Chapter 6):
- Chapter 4 provides guidance on whether or not to include an emissions source (e.g., a livestock category for which Tier 1 and 2 methods have not been developed but may or may not be a significant source)
- Volume 4 Chapter 10 addresses emissions from agriculture, forestry and other land use. For livestock, it presents updated Tier 1 and 2 methods while also presenting the possibility that a country develop a national-level approach (Tier 3 method) for livestock species of significance and/or that are not already covered by Tier 1 and 2 methods (e.g., alpacas, enteric fermentation from poultry).
- References (e.g. to the NRC nutrient requirements texts) are updated to reflect the availability of new research and data.
- Characterization of regions (and corresponding emission factors) are updated to reflect development, e.g. higher milk yields in North America
- Additional categories of livestock are included, e.g. reindeer, deer, and mink are included in Tier 1 manure management
- Opportunities for improving on Tier 2 methods are highlighted.
- Worksheets are provided to facilitate development of an inventory
- Updated versions of the inventory software can be found here.
The website provides whole site translation is several languages.
Prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Program