On 4 November, 2019, the Government of Armenia hosted the UNFCCC Secretariat (UN Climate Change) in collaboration with the FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization) to launch a workshop titled “Quality Assurance of the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Management System and National Greenhouse Gas Inventories of Armenia”, that will last until 08 November, 2019.

The 5-day workshop is organized to support the Government of Armenia to improve and maintain robust, and consistent national GHG inventory management system on sustainable base with effective application of 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) GHG Inventory Guidelines.

The UNFCCC representatives, Mr. William Agyemang-Bonsu, the Manager of Mitigation and Transparency Support and Dominique Revet, the Programme Officer, welcomed the participants and briefed on the goals and agenda of the workshop. The consultants and other programme officers from FAO and UNFCCC will also facilitate the workshop.

More than 30 participants - the representatives from the ministries and agencies, from the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures (Energy sector), the Ministry of Economy (Agricultural sector), Statistics Committee, Public Service Council, academia, national experts on GHG inventory and Mitigation involved in UNDP Climate Change Projects were attending the workshop.

Welcoming the organizers and the participants, the First Deputy Minister of Environment, Irina Ghaplanyan, emphasized the importance of National GHG Inventory on a regular basis and the need for continuous improvement of the GHG reporting as an essential component of the MRV system to ensure broader transparency under Article 13 of the Paris Agreement.

Thanking the organizers for such an exceptional workshop, Mrs. Ghaplanyan expressed hope for active engagement and exchange of good practices, as well as gaps identification with joint efforts of all the participants.

The Resident Representative of the UNDP Armenia, Dmitry Mariyasin welcomed the participants and thanked the organizers for such a multi-lateral cooperation towards national capacity building for responding to national commitments under UNFCCC.

“The UNDP in Armenia strongly welcomes the Armenian Government focus on practical cross-sectoral work on climate change as part of its policy, as well as the very active role of Ministry of Environment for advocating for climate. We are privileged to support the Government in its GHG Inventory biennial preparation as the latter is one of the key pillars of evidence based policy making of the Government. Therefore, the accurate collection of data can further guarantee turning them into actions financed by international organizations, including by the Green Climate Fund”, Mr. Mariyasin said.

Dmitry Mariyasin also emphasized, “Apart from Armenia’s international commitment of reporting to UNFCCC, the GHG inventory is a key element in decision making on infrastructure system in the country: the more reliable is the data of each infrastructure investments effects on GHG emissions, the more effective can be the mitigation of climate change impacts, ensuring smart data proven investments.”

During the next four days the workshop will be structured in thematic sessions for energy, agriculture, waste sectors, industrial processes and forestry.

The representatives from the ministries, state agencies, policy/decision makers, national experts and stakeholders will work jointly and closely in breakout groups to review the procedures and application of methodologies in National GHG Inventory system, with a special focus on transparency, accuracy and completeness of data collection, methodology of data documentation, consistency and comparability across the sectors. 

At the final stage of the workshop the findings and recommendations for prioritization of actions to be implemented and input to the national inventory report (NIP), including the identification of capacity building needs will be presented to the participants in the form of the report.

The utmost objective of the workshop is the capacity building of developing countries for effective implementation of the transparency framework under the Paris Agreement, including the accurate documentation of data resources and methodologies, common reporting format (CRF) usage and preparation of a structured National Inventory Report for facilitation of national and international reviews.

In the light of the Government’s prioritization of Forestry, Water sector the workshop is very timely and will serve as a good start for productive dialogue between all ministries, agencies, experts and stakeholders towards climate change actions in the country.

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On Friday, 8th of November, based on the four days of joint and intensive discussions between all the stakeholders attending the workshop, the findings and recommendations wrapping-up the results of the 5-day workshop were developed and agreed.

These recommendations aimed at improving the GHG inventory management system in the view of TACCC (Transparency, Accuracy, Consistency, Comparability, and Completeness) principles of IPCC GHG Inventory Guidelines and highlighted the priority actions to be implemented, including the identification of capacity building needs.

Afterwards, the UNFCCC representatives, Mr. William Agyemang-Bonsu, the Manager of Mitigation and Transparency Support and Dominique Revet, the Programme Officer, had a meeting with the RA Minister of Environment, Mr. Erik Grigoryan and presented the key findings and recommendations aimed at the quality assurance of GHG Inventory and discussed the necessary actions and institutional arrangements to ensure GHG Inventory on a continuous basis.