11 December 1996

 

ENGLISH ONLY



SUBSIDIARY BODY FOR SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL ADVICE

Fourth session

Geneva, 16-18 December 1996

Item 4 (b) of the provisional agenda




METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES

 

Comments from Parties and an international organization

 

Note by the secretariat




By its decision 9/CP.2, the Conference of the Parties, at its second session, requested the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) to consider methodological issues relevant to national communications and, in particular, at its fourth session, to address those issues discussed in FCCC/SBSTA/1996/9/Add.1 and 2; and, if relevant conclusions on such issues could be drawn, to revise further the guidelines for the preparation of national communications as appropriate (FCCC/CP/1996/15/Add.1).

The SBSTA invited Parties to submit their views on the methodological issues identified in documents FCCC/SBSTA/1996/9/Add.1 and 2, as well as on other methodological issues related to national communications from Annex I Parties, by 15 October 1996, for possible inclusion in the programme of work of the SBSTA.

In addition to the comments already received (see FCCC/SBSTA/1996/MISC.5), the secretariat has now received a submission from Pakistan. In accordance with the procedure for miscellaneous documents, this submission is attached and reproduced in the language in which it was received without formal editing.









FCCC/SBSTA/1996/MISC.5/Add.1

GE.96-



I. ACCOUNTING FOR THE EMISSIONS ASSOCIATED WITH

ELECTRICITY TRADE

 

On electricity trade bunker fuels and temperature adjustment this Ministry is of the view that Pakistan, who at present does not import or export electricity to any of its neighboring country but in future it may do so under bilateral agreement with neighboring countries such as Tajikistan etc. and may therefore, develop methodology agreeing to answer to question given in para 23.

 

II. ALLOCATION AND CONTROL OF INTERNATIONAL

BUNKER FUELS

 

In view of the complexities involved in allocation and universal use of air mode of transport, the Option 2 (mentioned in para 44 of FCCC/SBSTA/1996/9/Add.2) i.e. allocation of global emissions from aviation bunker fuels to Parties in proportion to their national emissions is more appealing. However, due to considerations of land-locked countries Option 1 (mentioned in para 67) which leaves the matter of allocation of emissions from marine bunkers to be decided by IMO seems more logical.



III. USE OF GLOBAL WARMING POTENTIALS

 

Future of man is dependent on the quality of environmental preservation. It is, therefore, the need of the hour that we may protect our environment; and may participate in all those activities that are helpful in the preservation of our general environment including emission of harmful gases, whose sources are energy related activities, industrial processes, use of certain solvents, agricultural activities, and waste mismanagement.



IV. ACCOUNTING FOR LAND-USE CHANGE AND FORESTRY

 

We need to acquire clean energy technologies, adoption of non-carbondioxide emission processes besides reduction in the intensity of excess NOx and SOx particles, increased carbonoxides uptake by the forest. This is required because climatic change has adverse effects on water resources, agriculture, forest, Aquatic eco-system and sea level.



V. USE OF TEMPERATURE ADJUSTMENTS

To keep the GHG emissions comparable among Parties it is recommended that only data that are not temperature - adjusted should be submitted. However, the levels of necessary adjustments may be mentioned as remarks. Another special case falling in this category could be the base year (i.e. 1990) being more "wet" (having higher hydro generation) than "average" year resulting in lesser use of fossil fuel based plants. This may also be treated in a manner similar to temperature adjustments.

We may propose development or transfer of the following technologies

(a) Quality assurance and control technologies for implementation electrical equipment

standards

(b) Capability building for enhancing efficiency of basic material industries like cement,

fertilizer, chemical etc.



VI. OTHER METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES


Design and engineering capacity building for expansion of railways to reduce expansion of relatively inefficient road transport.

Development of design and engineering capability for non-fossil energy technologies i.e. hydro power and nuclear.

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