Distr.

GENERAL

FCCC/1995/Inf.4

29 March 1995

ENGLISH ONLY

CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIESFirst session

Berlin, 28 March - 7 April 1995

Agenda item 5 (a) (i)

1. The compilation and synthesis of national communications ⁽¹⁾ contained in document A/AC.237/81^* presents information submitted by 15 Parties included in Annex I to the Convention. By 20 March 1995, additional communications had been received from the following Parties:

Finland Liechtenstein ⁽²⁾

France Monaco ⁽³⁾

Hungary Poland

Ireland Portugal

Italy Romania

Furthermore, an "overview" of the communication received from the European Community, containing information concerning the 12 countries that were member States at the time of submission, has been submitted by the Commission of the European Community on an informal basis. Belgium, although not yet a Party, has submitted an executive summary of its communication. The national communication from Greece was received by the interim secretariat after 20 March 1995. Therefore it was not possible to include information from this communication in the present document.

2. The purpose of this information note is to present preliminary information from these communications. However, it should be borne in mind that the information in this paper is of a different character from that in the compilation and synthesis document -- it has not been subject to an initial technical analysis by experts but is simply reproduced from the national submissions. These additional communications will be reviewed and incorporated in the second compilation and synthesis of national communications from

Annex I Parties to be prepared for the second session of the Conference of the Parties.

3. Data on inventories of emissions and removals as well as data on projections are included in the tables below. These tables are structured in the same way as the tables on the same subjects in the synthesis document. The balance of this paper seeks to highlight a few key points about which the Conference of the Parties may wish to be informed, including any implications for the summary conclusions made in the synthesis (A/AC.237/81).

4. Inventory data are presented in tables A.1 to A.8. As these data have not been subject to any technical analysis, they should not be compared and/or aggregated to the figures presented in document A/AC.237/81. In some cases only partial information was available.

5. The inventory data submitted do not appear to change the conclusions presented in document A/AC.237/81. For these additional Parties, CO₂⁽⁴⁾ also appears to be the most important greenhouse gas, with fuel combustion being the largest source of such emissions. Four of the Parties reported 1990 estimates from land use and forestry including CO₂ removals; one Party provided 1988 estimates. Four Parties referred to global warming potentials (GWPs), and one Party provided information on greenhouse gases other than CO₂, CH₄, N₂O and ozone precursors. These Parties (excluding the European Community in order to avoid double-counting) contribute an additional 5 per cent of global CO₂ emissions from fuel combustion.

6. These additional communications all report that policies and measures to mitigate climate change are being implemented.

7. Projection data are presented in tables 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7, which correspond to similar tables in document A/AC.237/81. One of the communications did not include any projections. Furthermore, one Party provided projections for "other gases", which are included in tables 6 and 7 only; consequently, there is no table 5. These projections may change some of the conclusions in the corresponding section of document A/AC.237/81. Three Parties with economies in transition asked for special consideration under Article 4.6 of the Convention for using base years other than 1990 (see paragraph 10 below).

8. Two Parties with economies in transition projected lower emissions in 2000 than in their base years. Their projections follow the same pattern as that for the country in transition in document A/AC.237/81 -- a major reduction until the mid-1990s and growth thereafter. Projections from eight communications show a growth in CO₂ emissions. Three Parties projected emissions (removals) from the land use change and forestry sector: two projected increasing removals and one decreasing removals. Four Parties projected major reductions in CH₄ emissions, while another projected stable emissions. Four Parties projected a growth in their N₂O emissions, while one Party projected a decline for part of its emissions. When estimates are aggregated using 1994 GWPs, two countries show declining emissions, while eight show increasing emissions both with and without land use change and forestry.

9. Belgium, the European Community, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy and Portugal are included in Annex II to the Convention. Six of these communications address finance, technology and capacity building to assist developing countries in the implementation of the Convention; five mention contributions to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and five discuss bilateral and other multilateral programmes. In addition, four communications discuss assistance to countries with economies in transition. The GEF secretariat reports the following contributions to the replenished GEF:

- Ireland: US$2.4 million

- Italy: US$114 million

- Finland: US$21 million

- France: US$143 million

- Portugal: US$5.6 million

Belgium and the European Community are not yet contributors to the replenished GEF, although Belgium, Finland, France, Italy and Portugal have contributed to the pilot phase.

10. In their communications, three Parties designated in Annex I to the Convention as countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy made requests under Article 4.6 for a certain degree of flexibility in implementing their commitments. In particular, this included requests for the use of different emission base years (or, in one case, period), instead of the 1990 level (although estimates for 1990 were also provided).

General footnotes to the tables

The figures presented in the following tables of this document have not been subject to any technical analysis and verification in the manner of those presented in document A/AC.237/81; the respective inventory data has therefore not been aggregated. The data presented will be reviewed and synthesized in the second compilation and synthesis which will be prepared before COP 2.

The differences between the figures presented in the tables and those found in the communications are the result of rounding for the purposes of data input and processing.

Blanks in the tables refer to either the absence of quantitative information or the fact that only qualitative information was provided. The interim secretariat has chosen to leave the spaces blank in order not to complicate the reading of the tables. The figure "zero" appears in the tables only when reported as such by the Parties.

It should be borne in mind that the data for the European Community includes data that is also covered by the communications of those Parties which are members of the European Community.

Notes

* Excludes land use change and forestry

Other gases were reported by one Party but represented too small a contribution to appear on this graph.

IPCC - 1994 GWP values with a time-horizon of 100 years, previously unavailable, were used by the secretariat

for purposes of comparison.

Comments:

For all Parties, CO₂ was the largest contributor to total greenhouse gas emissions.

1. * See also document A/AC.237/81/Corr.1.

1/ The term "national communications" includes communications from the regional economic integration organization included in Annex I to the Convention and should also be interpreted as including any supplementary information provided to the interim secretariat by Parties.

2. 2/ Liechtenstein is not included in Annex I to the Convention and did not notify the Depositary that it intends to be bound by Article 4.2(a) and (b).

3. 3/ Monaco is not listed in Annex I to the Convention but has notified the Depositary that it intends to be bound by Article 4.2(a) and (b). Its communication does not include the detailed data on inventories and projections requested in the "Guidelines for the preparation of communications by Annex I Parties".

4. ^*Please see explanatory notes in document A/AC.237/81 for explanation of symbols and abbreviations used in the present note.