VICTORIA FALLS, Zimbabwe, Sept 28 – About 190 experts from around the world have this week met in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, to further work on the draft of the update to the guidelines that countries use to estimate greenhouse gas emissions and removals in order, among others, to bring them in line with the new requirements of the Paris Agreement.
This is the second meeting of lead authors of the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, in short 2019 Refinement.
“It has been established that the 2006 IPCC Guidelines still provide a technically sound methodological basis of national greenhouse gas inventories; however, to maintain their scientific validity, certain refinements are required, taking into account scientific and other technical advances that have matured sufficiently since 2006. Therefore the IPCC has decided to produce a new Methodology Report to refine the 2006 IPCC Guidelines, which is titled the “2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories” (2019 Refinement),” said Eduardo Calvo Buendia and Kiyoto Tanabe, Co-Chairs of the IPCC’s Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories.
The meeting, organised by the Ministry of Environment, Water and climate of the government of Zimbabwe in collaboration with IPCC Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, intensifies the work on the new Methodology Report, which will be open for review by experts from 4 December 2017 to 11 February 2018
This particular Meeting comes at a time when Zimbabwe and much of Southern Africa has been experiencing more climate-induced extremes such as the 2016/2017 rainfall season incessant rains and subsequent flooding which was worsened by Tropical Cyclone Dineo. Previously, the 2015/2016 season had a severe drought which left a third of Zimbabwe food insecure and half the SADC region in a disaster.
Extreme weather events linked to climate change are impacting other parts of the world causing floods in southern Asia, Democratic Republic of Congo as well as landslides and drought in Africa.
The massive destruction to infrastructure in these regions clearly shows that preparedness and early warning alone are not sufficient. Given that all these extremes are enhanced by climate change, I hope this work will help address the root causes of the change and bring solutions to these challenges.
The world is therefore looking forward to the results of your work to guide global mitigation actions with the aim of keeping temperatures well below 2 degrees Celsius as compared to pre-industrial levels as contained in Article 2 of the Paris Agreement. Accurate reporting of GHGs will aid to a more transparent implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions,” said Ambassador B. Chidyausiku, Permanent Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet and Chairperson of the High-Level Committee on Climate Change, at the opening plenary.
The new 2019 Refinement will be finalized in May 2019 and will be used in conjunction with the 2006 IPCC Guidelines. It will have an Overview Chapter and 5 volumes. The full outline of the Methodology Report approved at the 44th Session of the IPCC is available here.
For more information,and interview requests, contact:
Ms. Mercy Machona, maitmach@gmail.com
Climate Change Management Department
Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Management
P. Bag 7753, Causeway
Harare
Zimbabwe
Tel: +263 701681/3
IPCC TFI-TSU, email: nggip-meetings@iges.or.jp
IPCC Press Office: Email, ipcc-media@wmo.int
Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120
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Notes for editors
What is the IPCC?
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was created in 1988 to deliver comprehensive reviews on the scientific, technical and socio-economic state of knowledge of climate change, its causes, possible repercussions and response strategies.
Its contribution to understanding climate change has been fundamental to creating global agreements on common goals, the last of which, the Paris Agreement, aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, including by holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 ºC above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ºC above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change. Governments agreed to set Nationally Determined Contributions to reach this goal, which will be reviewed regularly.
In its last report, the Fifth Assessment Report, the IPCC found that anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, are extremely likely to have been the dominant cause of observed warming since the mid-20th century. It found that limiting climate change would require substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
The IPCC is organised in three thematic Working Groups, and a Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (TFI). The TFI is responsible for development of internationally-agreed methodology for countries to estimate its emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). The latest comprehensive guidelines on such methodology produced by TFI were produced in 2006, titled the “2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories” (2006 IPCC Guidelines). The 2006 IPCC Guidelines are used by many countries in the world to estimate and report their national GHG emissions.
Sixth Assessment Cycle
At its 41st Session in February 2015, the IPCC decided to produce a Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). At its 42nd Session in October 2015 it elected a new Bureau to oversee the work on this report and Special Reports to be produced in the assessment cycle. At its 43rd Session in April 2016, it decided to produce three Special Reports, a Methodology Report and AR6.
The first of these special reports, to be finalized in October 2018, is Global Warming of 1.5ºC, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty.
In September 2019 the IPCC will also finalize two Special Reports: the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, and Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems.
The IPCC approved the outlines of AR6 in early September 2017. The three working contributions will be released in 2021 and the Synthesis Report in April 2022 in time for the first global stocktake in 2023 by the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
For more information including links to the IPCC reports, go to: www.ipcc.ch