Reporting national GHG inventories through Common Reporting Tables (CRTs): An assessment of CRT reporting options through worked examples

The Modalities, Procedures and Guidelines (MPGs) included in Decision 18/CMA.1 adopted at COP24 in 2018 require all Parties to the Paris Agreement to report national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories using “common reporting tables” (CRTs). The same decision requests the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) is to develop CRTs for consideration and adoption by COP26. This paper focuses on key issues related to the potential structure of the CRTs and approaches to filling them in. The paper assesses different CRT reporting scenarios through worked examples. Overall, the paper finds that all the tables contained in the set of Common Reporting Formats (CRFs) currently in use by Annex I Parties provide a valuable starting point for the development of CRTs. A number of improvements and adjustments, however, need to be applied to current CRFs to better reflect reporting guidance outlined in the MPGs. This paper finds that it is important to ensure that the CRTs are designed in a way that allows for a reporting that is as standardised as possible. This may include allowing for the use of standardised reporting elements (e.g. notation keys) and amending the tables according to a new, commonly agreed structure to allow for the reporting of new reporting elements. Using a common format while also facilitating standardised reporting can positively affect a number of processes, including the technical expert review and automated processing of information, thereby promoting transparency, comparability and consistency of GHG-inventory reporting.