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Good practice guidance for LULUCF
COP 7, by its decision  11/CP.7, invited the IPCC to prepare a report on good practice guidance and uncertainty
management relating to the measurement, estimation, assessment of uncertainties, monitoring and
reporting of net carbon stock changes and anthropogenic GHG emissions by sources and removals by
sinks in the LULUCF sector. The “Good Practice Guidance for Land
use, Land-use Change and Forestry” (IPCC GPG for LULUCF) was adopted by the IPCC
Plenary in 2003. The role of this GPG is not to replace the Revised 1996 IPCC Guidelines but
rather to provide advice consistent with them. The good practice guidance assists countries in
producing inventories for the LULUCF sector that are neither over- nor underestimated so far as can
be judged, and in which uncertainties are reduced as far as practicable. It is also
intended to support the development of inventories that are transparent, consistent, complete,
comparable and accurate.
Information about land area is necessary to estimate the changes in carbon stocks and emissions of
GHG associated with the LULUCF sector and activities. The GPG for LULUCF described six broad
land-use categories for reporting national inventories under the Convention:
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Forest land
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Cropland
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Grassland
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Wetlands
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Settlements
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Other land
COP 9 (December 2003) welcomed the report of the IPCC
entitled Good Practice Guidance for LULUCF (GPG for LULUCF) and decided that Annex I Parties
should use this report for preparing and reporting annual greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories for
the LULUCF sector under the Convention due in 2005 and beyond ( decision 13/CP.9). Non-Annex I
Parties are encouraged to apply the GPG for LULUCF, as appropriate and to the extent possible, in the
preparation of their GHG inventories in national communications.
A new common reporting format was also adopted with this decision (Annexes I and III).
Reporting categories are divided into estimating carbon stock changes in land-use categories and GHG
emissions resulting from LULUCF activities. The land categories are divided into lands
remaining in the same land use (for example, forest lands that remain as forest lands) and lands
converted into another land-use category (for example, forest lands converted into croplands) during
the inventory period. The secretariat incorporated these tables of the common reporting format
for LULUCF and relevant technical modifications in the UNFCCC reporting guidelines on annual
inventories (FCCC/SBSTA/2004/8).
These LULUCF reporting tables were also integrated in the CRF Reporter to facilitate inventory
submissions by Annex I Parties.
At the time, this decision excluded guidance relating to the preparation and reporting of GHG
inventories for the LULUCF sector under the context of the Kyoto Protocol, a matter subsequently
taken up at a later session (SBSTA 20).
Decision 13/CP.9 invited Parties to
submit their views on the tables of the common reporting format (CRF) for LULUCF and experiences with
their use (FCCC/SBSTA/2005/MISC.7
and Add.1).
Following these submissions, the secretariat synthesized the views by Parties (FCCC/SBSTA/2005/7)
for the consideration of the SBSTA at its twenty-third session.
SBSTA 23 (FCCC/SBSTA/2005/10,
paragraphs 37–43) made several modifications to the tables of the CRF for LULUCF and
recommended a draft decision on this matter for adoption by COP 11. These changes to the tables
of the CRF for LULUCF in
14/CP.11 will apply for inventory submissions by Annex I Parties due in April 2007 and
later. The secretariat incorporated these tables and their notes and the technical
modifications resulting from decision
13/CP.9 in updated UNFCCC reporting guidelines on annual inventories (FCCC/SBSTA/2006/9).
Further information on the reporting requirements for national GHG inventories of Annex I Parties and
on the review process under the Convention is available under "GHG Inventories (Annex )".
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