The handbook was developed by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with input from a wide range of institutions and national experts from AnnexI and non- AnnexI Parties. The objective of the handbook is to provide non-AnnexI Parties with a strategic and logical approach to a sustainable inventory process. This should not only help countries produce more accurate inventories, it may also help enhance efficiency and ensure optimum use of scarce financial and human resources. It is recommended that a significant part of a country’s inventory improvement efforts focus on documentation and archiving, because this is critical to the long-term sustainability and institutionalisation of the inventory process. The target audience for this handbook is non-AnnexI Party inventory experts concerned with general aspects of GHG inventory planning, preparation and management. As majority of non-AnnexI Parties have prepared at least one national GHG inventory, this handbook focuses on improving and updating the GHG inventory and on managing these processes, including improved documentation and archiving.

Compiling a national greenhouse gas inventory requires a fairly lengthy and interconnected series of tasks, including collecting emission factors and activity data, selecting appropriate methods, estimating GHG emissions and removals, implementing uncertainty assessment and quality assurance/quality control procedures, reporting the results, and documenting and archiving all relevant data and procedures.

This work requires fundamental decisions about data and methods, the establishment of a network of contacts for accessing data and reviewing results and the design of a sys- tem for data management, quality assurance, quality control, documentation and archiving. The inventory process should be planned, operated and managed to ensure optimal quality and efficiency, given available resources. This is especially important as countries produce their second and subsequent national inventories.

Read the handbook here: Managing the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Process