The document discusses the International Energy Agency's (IEA) perspective on common reporting tables (CRTs) for national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories. The IEA supports the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by providing energy data and analysis to help assess countries' GHG inventories. The IEA recommends adopting standardized energy definitions and classifications to improve data quality and comparability. The IEA also recommends explicitly mapping energy statistics to GHG inventory variables and maintaining coherence with countries' energy balances. The IEA provides specific recommendations to improve certain CRT tables by making activity data and calorific values more transparent and consistent.

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Energy data for GHGs reporting and CRTs: the IEA perspective
May 2021 CCXG Workshop – Opportunities for developing Common Reporting Tables for national GHG
inventories
Roberta QUADRELLI, Pouya TAGHAVI
International Energy Agency – Energy Data Centre

2. IEA 2021. All rights reserved.
Global energy statistics: at the core of the IEA work
• To develop comprehensive global
energy statistics and enhance their
dissemination to inform energy policy
• To improve countries ability to produce
energy stats, through training and
cooperation
• To raise the profile of statistics and
statisticians and highlight the relevance
to policy making
https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics

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IEA data work to support UNFCCC and global
climate reporting

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Energy data and UNFCCC GHG reporting: IEA experience
Each year, for each Party reviewed, IEA provides UNFCCC and its expert
reviewers with an assessment, comparing the two international submissions.
Parties are requested to address issues within the review process.
IEA contributes to climate policy transparency in several ways:
• data and analysis resources
• methodology reference (e.g. with IPCC)
• capacity building (training, material)
…
• dedicated annual work to support UNFCCC GHG reviews:
IEA supports UNFCCC on coherence of energy data and GHG inventories,
to reduce burden on countries and improve data quality.

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IEA support to UNFCCC GHGs inventories in practice
Each year, for each Annex 1 Party reviewed, IEA provides UNFCCC and its expert reviewers
with an assessment comparing the two international submissions.
Consolidated workstream – also took into account recommendations
from LR Working group
B. Set of comparison files based on CRF tables –
aligned by UNFCCC and IEA – focus on energy
A. Analysis of data issues:
trends and levels

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How is the IEA analysis used through the UNFCCC review?
a) The findings in the analysis prepared by IEA are incorporated practically verbatim in the
individual Assessment Report that the UNFCCC secretariat sends to the Party for comments ahead
of review week; therefore, they are commented by each Party under review;
b) The Assessment Report with the comments of the Party is provided to the expert review
team (ERT) as basis for the review report. Depending of the issue and the comment from the Party,
the experts may formulate further questions for clarification. The experts assess whether the issue
is solved, clarified or not, and if it should be incorporated in the review report.
c) The quantitative comparison files (excel) provided by IEA are made available to the ERT
during the review as a supporting tool. In many cases. In addition, the experts use the energy
balance provided by IEA to deepen assessment, ask questions for clarification and identify issues
for the review report, if that is the case.

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Strategic objective: to improve data for energy and climate policy
Ensure that one coherent set of national energy data is used for all purposes
Ministry of Energy
Statistical Office
Energy Agency
…
Ministry of Environment
Statistical Office
Hydrometerological service
…
Institutional
arrangements
National energy data
National GHG inventories
ENERGY
CLIMATE
National energy data
National GHG inventories

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The IEA perspective on the Common Reporting
Tables

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First: adopting standardized energy definitions/classifications is key
IRES and IPCC Guidelines are compatible – developed in collaboration
Comparability is key to high-quality energy and GHG data at national level
• IEA led harmonization
effort with partners
(UNSD, Eurostat, …)
International Recommendations
on Energy Statistics (IRES)
• Adopted by the UN Statistical
Commission in 2011
• Guidelines elaborated through very
wide consultation (including IPCC
and UNFCCC)

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First general recommendation: explicitly map energy statistics into
GHG inventory tables variables
Explicit mapping of energy statistics will ensure high quality inventory data
Examples of potential misalignments IPCC – IRES
 Products: IRES follows SIEC products classification. Examples of misalignments
include: “Coal, Oil, Gas,…” vs “Solid, Liquid, Gaseous”, with implications on allocation
of data for specific products.
 Nomenclature for sectors: Examples of misalignments include: “Public” vs “Main
activity” producers; “Petroleum” vs “Oil” refining; etc.
 ISIC rev 3 (IPCC) with ISIC Rev 4 (IRES) for industrial sectors
 Boundaries of “production”: “marketable” (IRES) vs “raw” (e.g. mining emissions)

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Second general recommendation: keep coherence with energy balance

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Examples of detailed recommendations on CRFs tables: 1.A(b) - NCVs
Table 1.A(b) is relevant to assess the apparent consumption at a glance (reference approach)
Reporting the calorific values in the table even if energy data are reported directly in energy
terms will help to understand potential sources of discrepancy as part of the review process.
Currently the footnote requests to report NCVs in the National Inventory Report, however this
is not always used nor practical to review.
Note: Calorific values affect emissions estimations as much as physical quantities.

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Table 1.B.1 is relevant to understand fugitive emissions from coal mining. Footnote reminds to
use “raw coal production” as activity data.
Reporting both “raw” coal and “marketable” production as “activity” would help avoiding
inconsistencies with Table 1.A (b), as marketable production is basis for fuel combustion.
Currently, approach from countries in Table 1.B.1 vary, and this may create ambiguities, if not
data issues.
Examples of detailed recommendations on CRFs tables: 1.B.1 - production

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An opportunity for simplification? 1.A(a)s3 – Transport …
All sectoral consumption data are important to understand
emissions drivers.
However, CRFs require a much higher disaggregation for
transport than for residential or commercial, with
difficulties to track such detail for some countries
(detail beyond the typical energy balance).
Passenger road versus Freight road would already give a
good sense for what drives emissions.
In any case, we recommend splitting “Buses” out of
“Trucks” (different purpose). More detailed guidance
available based on IEA experience in energy efficiency
indicators.

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Or… an opportunity for enhanced ambition: end-uses for buildings, too!
The Residential sector is extremely important but is just
reported under “Other sectors”, together with Services.
While for transport the disaggregation is detailed: Cars, light-
duty vehicles, trucks, etc (as in Table 1.Aa(s3)),
The end-uses for residential (cooking, space heating, space
cooling, etc) are not tracked – some still dependent on fossil
or biomass.
Countries able to report disaggregated data for transport
would find it beneficial to report emissions from residential
and services end-uses, too, as demand will vary a lot across
them. Buildings provide a huge untapped potential for

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