Background

Under the Convention, the commitments by Parties to mitigate climate change are defined in Article 4.  These commitments take into account Parties’ common but differentiated responsibilities and their specific national and regional development priorities, objectives and circumstances.  Article 4 has references to commitments relating to the land use, land-use change and forestry sector:

Article 4, paragraph 1(a):  Develop, periodically update, publish and make available to the Conference of the Parties, in accordance with Article 12, national inventories of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of all greenhouse gases (GHGs)^* not controlled by the Montreal Protocol, using comparable methodologies to be agreed upon by the Conference of the Parties.

( ^*  including inventories of GHG emissions and removals from the LULUCF sector)

Article 4, paragraph 1(d): Promote sustainable management, and promote and cooperate in the conservation and enhancement, as appropriate, of sinks and reservoirs of all GHGs not controlled by the Montreal Protocol, including biomass, forests and oceans as well as other terrestrial, coastal and marine ecosystems.

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:

• Forest land
• Cropland
• Grassland
• Wetlands
• Settlements
• 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 )".