The Consultative Group of Experts on National Communications from Parties not included in Annex I to the Convention (CGE) is an expert group established by the Conference of the Parties to assist non-Annex I Parties to improve the preparation of their national communications. To fulfil part of its mandate, the CGE is conducting a series of hands-on training workshops on national greenhouse gas inventories, vulnerability and adaptation assessments and mitigation assessments. The aim of these workshops is to build capacity of experts in non-Annex I countries in preparing national communications and to introduce them to various available tools and methodologies.

This CD-ROM contains training materials on greenhouse gas inventories, vulnerability and adaptation assessments and mitigation assessments. Each set of training materials includes slide presentations and accompanying notes, a handbook that explains the presentations in detail, software, and the manuals of the various tools and resource materials. These materials have been published for use by national experts involved in the preparation of national communications. The training materials contained in this CD-ROM have been introduced in the following hands-on training workshops:

1. Hands-on training workshop on national greenhouse gas inventories:
   • Latin America and the Caribbean: 25–29 October 2004,
     Panama City, Panama
   • Asia: 8–12 February 2005, Shanghai, China
2. Hands-on training workshop on vulnerability and adaptation assessments for the Africa region, 18–22 April, 2005, Maputo, Mozambique
3. Global hands-on training workshop on mitigation assessments, 26–30 September 2005, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

The CGE is scheduled to conduct three more regional hands-on training workshops to ensure that training for the preparation of national communication is made available to all regions. Lessons gained from implementing these regional workshops, including further development of the tools and methodologies, will be incorporated in a future revision of this training package.

In using this training package, you may have questions or comments on its application or on the issues covered. The CGE welcomes your feedback as this would be useful in the further development of these training materials.