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National greenhouse-gas inventory public comment deadline looms

1st July 2014

By: Creamer Media Reporter

  

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Members of the public have until July 6 to comment on the fourth National Greenhouse-Gas (GHG) Inventory for South Africa, covering 2000 to 2010, which revealed that the total GHG emissions in South Africa, excluding the land subsector, steadily increased by 24.9% during the period.

The GHG inventory, initiated in 2011 and published by Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa on June 6, in Gazette No 37701, stated that, including the land subsector, which was estimated to be a net carbon sink, led to greater annual fluctuations in the total carbon dioxide emitted.

“The objective of the report is to ensure that South Africa has an understanding of both its emissions profile and the key drivers of change in emissions,” the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) said in a statement on Tuesday.

The key categories in the report indicate those activities that have significantly contributed to the total profile of South Africa’s GHG emissions and were identified by carrying out the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Tier 1 level and trend assessment with the 2000 and 2010 GHG inventories.

The key categories for 2010, excluding the land subsector, are energy industries, road transportation, manufacturing and construction and enteric fermentation; while an assessment of key categories over the 2000 to 2010 period showed other sectors, other emissions from energy production, enteric fermentation and iron and steel production to be key categories.

The report summarises the aggregated GHG trends by gas and emission source and details explanations of the emissions in the energy, industrial processes and product use, agriculture, forestry and other land use, and waste sectors. This includes an overall trend assessment, data sources, methodology, recalculations, uncertainty and time-series consistency, quality assurance/quality control and planned improvements and recommendations.

The inventory was compiled by the DEA in response to South Africa’s obligation to report its GHG emissions to international climate change bodies.

South Africa has to report its national GHG emissions as part of its Biennial Update Report by December 2014, the DEA explained. The Biennial Update Report also included the measures to mitigate climate change and identified the constraints and gaps that existed with regard to mitigating climate change.

Cabinet received the draft report on the National GHG Inventory for South Africa on June 26 this year. The report is in line with the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which South Africa ratified in 1997.

According to the UNFCCC, countries are required to submit their progress reports every two years.

The reporting of South Africa’s GHG emissions was in line with the 2006 guidelines of the IPCC, which ensured that the GHG inventory report was “accurate, consistent, complete and transparent” noted the DEA.

The first National GHG Inventory for South Africa was prepared in 1998, using 1990 data. It was updated to include 1994 data and published in 2004. Both the 1998 and the 2004 reports were developed using the 1996 IPCC Guidelines for National GHG Inventories.

INVENTORY SYSTEM

South Africa is in the process of creating a national GHG inventory system, which is the description and implementation of information flows, roles and responsibilities.

“The national system will ensure that the country prepares and manages data collection and analysis, as well as all relevant information related to climate change in the most consistent, transparent and accurate manner for both internal and external reporting. This national system will be managed by the national inventory unit within the climate change branch at the DEA,” said the department.

The South African Air Quality Information System (SAAQIS) will play a major role in managing reporting and processing of data, with only emissions from energy and industrial processes being estimated using the SAAQIS, explained the DEA.

“Owing to their complex emission-estimating methods, emission sectors such as agriculture, forestry, land use and waste are to be estimated ‘outside’ the SAAQIS system. The SAAQIS will, in turn, ingest the outputs of models used in the agriculture, forestry, land use and waste sectors so that it can generate a national emissions profile.”

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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