Commission Decision of 10 February 2005 laying down rules implementing Decision No 280/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning a mechanism for monitoring Community greenhouse gas emissions and for implementing the Kyoto Protocol (notified under document number C(2005) 247) (2005/166/EC)

CHAPTER I U.K. Subject matter

Article 1 U.K. Subject matter

This Decision establishes rules implementing Decision No 280/2004/EC as regards the following:

(a)

the reporting of information referred to in Article 3(1) and (2) of Decision No 280/2004/EC, in accordance with Article 3(3) of that Decision;

(b)

the establishment of a Community inventory system in accordance with Article 4(2) of Decision No 280/2004/EC;

(c)

the requirements for reporting on the demonstration of progress as required by Article 3(2) of the Kyoto Protocol and for reporting in relation to the additional period set in the Marrakech Accords for fulfilling commitments in accordance with Article 5(6) of Decision No 280/2004/EC;

(d)

the procedures and timescales for the cooperation and coordination of the obligations listed in Article 8(1) of Decision No 280/2004/EC, in accordance with Article 8(3) of that Decision.

CHAPTER II U.K. Reporting by Member States

Section 1 U.K. Annual reports

Article 2 U.K. Determination and reporting guidance

1. Member States shall determine the information reported pursuant to Article 3(1) of Decision No 280/2004/EC in accordance with:

(a) the revised 1996 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories, hereinafter referred to as ‘the revised 1996 IPCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories’;

(b) the IPCC good practice guidance and uncertainty management in national greenhouse gas inventories, hereinafter referred to as ‘the IPCC good practice guidance’;

(c) the IPCC good practice guidance for land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF), hereinafter referred to as ‘the IPCC good practice guidance for LULUCF’.

2. Member States shall report the information reported pursuant to Article 3(1) of Decision No 280/2004/EC to the Commission with a copy to the European Environment Agency in accordance with:

(a) the guidelines for the preparation of national communications by Parties included in Annex I to the Convention, part I: UNFCCC reporting guidelines on annual inventories, hereinafter referred to as ‘the UNFCCC reporting guidelines for annual inventories’;

(b) the guidelines for the preparation of the information required under Article 7 of the Kyoto Protocol, hereinafter referred to as ‘the guidelines under Article 7 of the Kyoto Protocol’.

3. The complete national inventory report referred to in Article 3(1) second subparagraph of Decision No 280/2004/EC, shall be drafted using the national inventory report structure set out in the UNFCCC reporting guidelines for annual inventories.

Article 3 U.K. Reporting under Article 3(1)(d) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

1. Member States shall, in accordance with Article 3(3) of the Kyoto Protocol and the relevant decisions adopted thereunder, for the purpose of Article 3(1)(d) of Decision No 280/2004/EC report their anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks from land-use change and forestry activities under Article 3(3) of the Kyoto Protocol for the years between 1990 and the year before last.

Member States that elect forest management, cropland management, grazing land management or revegetation under Article 3(4) of the Kyoto Protocol shall in addition report anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks for each elected activity for the years between 1990 and the year before last.

Member States shall clearly distinguish this information from estimates of anthropogenic emissions from the sources listed in Annex A to the Kyoto Protocol.

2. Member States shall provide the information in paragraph 1 in their reports submitted from 15 January 2010 onwards.

Article 4 U.K. Reporting under Article 3(1)(f) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

1. Member States shall for the purpose of Article 3(1)(f) of Decision No 280/2004/EC report:

(a) a description of the Member State’s institutional arrangements for inventory preparation and the process of inventory preparation;

(b) a description of methodologies and data sources used, including information on methods used, and types of activity data and emission factors used for the Community’s key sources as annually determined by the Commission by 31 October in accordance with Chapter 7 of the IPCC good practice guidance and Chapter 5 of the IPCC good practice guidance for LULUCF. Member States shall provide this information by referring to sections of the national inventory report or in the tabular format provided in Annex I to this Decision;

(c) information on the Member State’s quality assurance and quality control programme, including its quality objectives and inventory quality assurance and quality control plan;

(d) a general uncertainty assessment;

(e) a general assessment of completeness, addressing the geographical coverage of that Member State and any gaps in the inventory submission;

(f) the comparison of the sectoral approach with the reference approach;

(g) any responses to the UNFCCC review of previous national inventories received since the submission of the previous national inventory and information on any recalculations performed;

(h) the description and interpretation of past emission trends.

2. For the information to be provided pursuant to points (a) to (e) in paragraph 1, Member States may indicate that no changes occurred to those sections of the national inventory report.

Article 5 U.K. Reporting under Article 3(1)(g) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

The information from the national registry referred to in Article 3(1)(g) of Decision No 280/2004/EC shall include the information required pursuant to the guidelines under Article 7 of the Kyoto Protocol.

Article 6 U.K. Reporting under Article 3(1)(h) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

The information on legal entities referred to in Article 3(1)(h) of Decision No 280/2004/EC shall include a list of legal entities authorised by the Member State to hold assigned amount units (AAUs), removal units (RMUs), emission reduction units (ERUs) and certified emission reductions (CERs), including temporary CERs (tCERS) and long-term CERs (lCERs).

Article 7 U.K. Reporting under Article 3(1)(j) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

The information on indicators referred to in Article 3(1)(j) of Decision No 280/2004/EC:

(a)

shall include, by 15 January 2005 and each year thereafter, the values for the priority indicators listed in table II-1 in Annex II;

(b)

should include, by 15 January 2005, and shall include, by 15 January 2006 and each year thereafter, the values for the additional priority indicators listed in table II-2 in Annex II;

(c)

should include, by 15 January 2005 and each year thereafter, the values for the supplementary indicators listed in table II-3 in Annex II.

Section 2 U.K. Biennial reports

Article 8 U.K. Reporting guidance

Member States shall report the information listed in Article 3(2) of Decision No 280/2004/EC in accordance with the guidelines for the preparation of national communications by Parties included in Annex I to the Convention, Part II: UNFCCC reporting guidelines on national communications, hereinafter referred to as ‘the UNFCCC reporting guidelines for national communications’, and the Guidelines under Article 7 of the Kyoto Protocol.

Article 9 U.K. Reporting under Article 3(2)(a) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

The information on national policies and measures referred to in Article 3(2)(a) of Decision No 280/2004/EC shall include:

(a)

a list of those policies and measures which expired or were repealed during the reporting period;

(b)

a description of the actual and expected interaction with other relevant policies and measures and with relevant Community policies and legislation;

(c)

indicators for projections for the years 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020 as listed in Annex III to this Decision.

Article 10 U.K. Reporting under Article 3(2)(b) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

1. For the purpose of Article 3(2)(b) of Decision No 280/2004/EC Member States shall clearly identify their ‘with measures’ and ‘with additional measures’ projections and the policies and measures included therein.

A ‘with measures’ projection shall include implemented and adopted policies and measures. A ‘with additional measures’ projection shall include planned policies and measures.

Member States may include information on ‘without measures’ projections as part of their ‘with measures’ and ‘with additional measures’ projections. A ‘without measures’ projection shall exclude all policies and measures implemented, adopted or planned after the year chosen as the starting year for this projection.

2. The descriptions of methodologies, models, underlying assumptions and key input and output parameters referred to in Article 3(2)(b)(iv) of Decision No 280/2004/EC, shall include, if used, the mandatory parameters set out in point 1 of Annex IV to this Decision.

Member States are encouraged to report the parameters on projections included in the list of recommended parameters set out in point 2 of Annex IV to this Decision.

Member States shall undertake a sensitivity analysis of their projections, focused on the key input variables in their projection models.

Member States are encouraged to define a high, central and low scenario for the key input variables and to quantify projected emissions for these scenarios. Member States are furthermore encouraged to include a measure of robustness of their predictive model and its methods used for their assessments. Member States may consider the use of multi-variant scenarios, using combinations of input variables.

Article 11 U.K. Reporting under Article 3(2)(a)(vi) and Article 3(2)(d) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

Member States shall provide information on their use of joint implementation, the clean development mechanism and international emissions trading, pursuant to Articles 6, 12 and 17 of the Kyoto Protocol, to meet their quantified emission limitation or reduction commitments pursuant to Article 2 of Council Decision 2002/358/EC(1) and the Kyoto Protocol on the basis of the questionnaire set out in Annex V to this Decision. Member States are encouraged to provide this information on an annual basis as part of their report pursuant to Article 3(1) of Decision No 280/2004/EC.

Member States may limit this information to changes or additions to the information reported on the basis of the questionnaire for the previous year.

CHAPTER III U.K. The Community inventory system

Section 1 U.K. The Community inventory system

Article 12 U.K. Quality and exchange of information and data in the Community inventory system

1. Member States shall ensure the quality of activity data, emission factors and other parameters used for their national greenhouse gas inventory in accordance with the IPCC good practice guidance and the IPCC good practice guidance for LULUCF.

2. Member States shall submit their annual inventory in an electronic format to the Commission and send a copy to the European Environment Agency.

Section 2 U.K. Estimates for data missing from a national inventory pursuant to Article 4(1) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

Article 13 U.K. Estimates for data missing from a national inventory pursuant to Article 4(1) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

If a Member State does not submit all data required pursuant to Article 3(1) of Decision No 280/2004/EC by 15 March of a reporting year, the Commission shall prepare estimates for data missing for that Member State to be included in the Community greenhouse gas inventory for that reporting year and source category, in accordance with the UNFCCC reporting guidelines for annual inventories and the revised 1996 IPCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories.

Article 14 U.K.

1. The Commission estimates for missing data shall be based on the principles set out in paragraphs 2, 3 and 4.

2. If a consistent time series of reported estimates for the relevant source category is available from the Member State for previous years that has not been subject to adjustments under Article 5(2) of the Kyoto Protocol, extrapolation of that time series shall be used to obtain the emission estimate.

For carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector, extrapolation of emissions should be based on the percentage change of Eurostat carbon dioxide emission estimates.

3. If the estimate for the relevant source category was subject to adjustments under Article 5(2) of the Kyoto Protocol in previous years and the Member State has not submitted a revised estimate, the basic adjustment method used by the expert review team as set out in the technical guidance on methodologies for adjustments under Article 5(2) of the Kyoto Protocol, hereinafter referred to as ‘the technical guidance for adjustments’, shall be used, without application of the conservativeness factor defined in that guidance.

4. If a consistent time series of reported estimates for the relevant source category is not available and if the estimate of the source category has not been subject to adjustments under Article 5(2) of the Kyoto Protocol, the estimation shall be based on the technical guidance for adjustments, without application of the conservativeness factor defined in that guidance.

Article 15 U.K.

The Commission shall prepare the estimates referred to in Article 14 by 31 March of the reporting year, following consultation with the Member State concerned, and communicate those estimates to the other Member States.

Article 16 U.K.

The Member State concerned shall use the estimates referred to in Article 14 for its national submission to the UNFCCC to ensure consistency between the Community inventory and Member States’ inventories.

CHAPTER IV U.K. Reporting on the demonstration of progress by 2005 and the additional period for fulfilling commitments

Section 1 U.K. Reports on the demonstration of progress by 2005

Article 17 U.K. Member State reporting on the demonstration of progress achieved by 2005 under Article 5(4) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

1. Member States shall prepare the report on the demonstration of progress achieved by 2005 in accordance with the UNFCCC reporting guidelines for national communications and the Guidelines under Article 7 of the Kyoto Protocol. The report shall include:

(a) a description of domestic measures, including any legal and institutional steps, adopted for the purpose of meeting that Member State’s commitments pursuant to Article 2 of Decision 2002/358/EC and the Kyoto Protocol, and any programmes for domestic compliance and enforcement;

(b) information on trends in, and projections of, greenhouse gas emissions at national level, where the trends shall be based on the inventory data submitted by the Member States to the UNFCCC by 15 April 2005;

(c) an evaluation of how the domestic measures referred to in point (a), in the light of the trends and projections referred to in point (b), will contribute to the Member State meeting its commitments pursuant to Article 2 of Decision 2002/358/EC and the Kyoto Protocol;

(d) a description of the activities, actions and programmes undertaken by the Member State for the purpose of meeting its commitments under Articles 10 and 11 of the Kyoto Protocol.

2. Member States shall submit the report as a single document including four chapters containing the information listed in paragraph 1, points (a) to (d).

The information on projections referred to in paragraph 1(b) shall be consistent with the information submitted to the Commission by 15 June 2005 pursuant to Article 5(3) of Decision No 280/2004/EC.

Section 2 U.K. Reports upon expiration of the additional period for fulfilling commitments

Article 18 U.K. Member State reporting upon expiration of the additional period for fulfilling commitments under Article 5(5) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

Each Member State’s report shall, in accordance with the modalities for the accounting of assigned amounts under Article 7(4) of the Kyoto Protocol, contain the following information:

(a)

for the current calendar year until the end of the additional period for fulfilling commitments (defined according to Greenwich Mean Time), the total quantity of:

(i)

ERUs, CERs (including lCERs and tCERs), AAUs and RMUs in each Member State holding, cancellation, replacement and retirement account and in all operator and person holding accounts on 1 January each year,

(ii)

AAUs issued on the basis of the assigned amount pursuant to Article 3(7) and 3(8) of the Kyoto Protocol,

(iii)

ERUs issued on the basis of projects undertaken pursuant to Article 6 of the Kyoto Protocol,

(iv)

ERUs, CERs (including lCERs and tCERs), AAUs and RMUs acquired from other registries and a separate list providing the identity of the transferring accounts and registries,

(v)

RMUs issued on the basis of each activity under Article 3(3) and (4) of the Kyoto Protocol,

(vi)

ERUs, CERs (including lCERs and tCERs), AAUs and RMUs transferred to other registries and a separate list providing the identity of the acquiring accounts and registries,

(vii)

ERUs, CERs, AAUs and RMUs cancelled on the basis of activities under Article 3(3) and (4) of the Kyoto Protocol,

(viii)

ERUs, CERs, AAUs and RMUs cancelled following determination by the Compliance Committee that the Member State is not in compliance with its commitment under Article 3(1) of the Kyoto Protocol,

(ix)

other ERUs, CERs (including lCERs and tCERs), AAUs and RMUs cancelled,

(x)

ERUs, CERs (including lCERs and tCERs), AAUs and RMUs retired,

(xi)

AAUs, CERs, ERUs, RMUs and tCERs transferred into the tCER replacement account for the commitment period,

(xii)

AAUs, CERs, ERUs, RMUs and lCERs transferred into the lCER replacement account for the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol;

(b)

the total quantity and serial numbers of ERUs, AAUs, RMUs, CERs (including lCERs and tCERs) in the Member State’s retirement account at the end of the reporting period;

(c)

the total quantity and serial numbers of ERUs, CERs and AAUs which the Member State requests to be carried over to the subsequent commitment period.

That information shall only include ERUs, AAUs, RMUs, CERs (including lCERs and tCERs) valid for the commitment period in question. It shall be determined on the basis of the information made available pursuant to Article 9 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 2216/2004(2) and shall be submitted in electronic format.

Article 19 U.K. Community reporting upon expiration of the additional period for fulfilling commitments under Article 5(5) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

The Community report shall contain the following information:

(a)

the total quantities of the units listed in Article 18(a) reported by the Member States and the total quantities of those units held in the Community registry;

(b)

the total quantity and serial numbers of ERUs, AAUs, RMUs, CERs (including lCERs and tCERs) in Member States’ and in the Community’s retirement accounts at the end of the reporting period;

(c)

the total quantity and serial numbers of ERUs, CERs and AAUs which each Member State and the Community request to be carried over to the subsequent commitment period in accordance with the modalities for the accounting of assigned amounts under Article 7(4) of the Kyoto Protocol.

CHAPTER V U.K. Procedures and time scales for cooperation and coordination

Article 20 U.K. The compilation of the Community greenhouse gas inventory and inventory report pursuant to Article 8(1)(a) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

1. Member States shall use the ReportNet tools of the European Environment Agency, provided pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1641/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council(3), for the submission of annual information under Article 3(1) of Decision No 280/2004/EC.

2. Any updated data provided by Member States in accordance with Article 4(1) of Decision No 280/2004/EC shall be limited to providing missing data and removing inconsistencies.

3. The procedures and timetable for the compilation of the Community inventory and the inventory report are set out in Annex VI.

Article 21 U.K. The review, adjustment and compliance procedures under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol pursuant to Article 8(1)(b) and (c) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

1. If on 1 June a Member State has not submitted its annual inventory report to the UNFCCC, it shall immediately notify the Commission.

2. Member States shall notify the Commission within one week of receiving any of the following information from the UNFCCC:

(a) indications by an expert review team of problems related to the Member State’s inventory which would need an adjustment;

(b) corrections to the inventory estimates applied in agreement between the Member State and the expert review team to the inventory submission concerned;

(c) adjusted estimates contained in a draft individual inventory review report applied where the Member State did not correct the problem to the satisfaction of the expert review team;

(d) questions of implementation that have been submitted to the Compliance Committee under the Kyoto Protocol, the notification by the Compliance Committee to proceed with a question of implementation, and all preliminary findings and decisions of the Compliance Committee and its branches concerning the Member State.

With regard to point (a) the Member State shall notify the Commission on how it plans to address the problems identified by the expert review team.

With regard to point (c) the Member State shall notify the Commission whether it accepts or rejects the proposed adjustments.

The Commission shall inform the other Member States within one week of receipt of the information in points (a) to (d) from the Member State concerned.

3. The Commission shall inform all Member States within one week of the receipt of the following information from the UNFCCC:

(a) indications by an expert review team of problems related to the Community’s inventory which would need an adjustment;

(b) corrections to the inventory estimates applied in agreement between the Community and the expert review team to the inventory submission concerned;

(c) adjusted estimates contained in a draft individual inventory review report applied where the Community did not correct the problem to the satisfaction of the expert review team;

(d) questions of implementation that have been submitted to the Compliance Committee under the Kyoto Protocol, the notification by the Compliance Committee to proceed with a question of implementation, and all preliminary findings and decisions of the Compliance Committee and its branches concerning the Community.

4. Member States shall coordinate their response to the review process in relation to obligations under Decision No 280/2004/EC with the Commission:

(a) within the timeframes provided pursuant to the Kyoto Protocol, if the adjusted estimates in a single year or the cumulative adjustments in subsequent years of the commitment period for one or more Member States would imply adjustments of the Community inventory to an amount leading to a failure to meet the methodological and reporting requirements under Article 7(1) of the Kyoto Protocol for the purpose of the eligibility requirements as set out in the guidelines under Article 7 of the Kyoto Protocol;

(b) within two weeks prior to the submission to the relevant bodies under the Kyoto Protocol of the following:

(i)

a request to revise an adjustment;

(ii)

a request for reinstatement of eligibility;

(iii)

a response to a decision to proceed with a question of implementation or to preliminary findings of the Compliance Committee.

5. Member States shall inform the Commission and other Member States on adjustments calculated for their inventory estimates during the voluntary adjustment procedure applied pursuant to the technical guidance for adjustments.

Article 22 U.K. The preparation of the reports on demonstration of progress pursuant to Article 8(1)(d) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

1. The Commission draft report on the demonstration of progress achieved by 2005 by the Community shall be circulated to Member States by 30 July 2005. Member States shall provide any comments by 31 August 2005 at the latest.

2. Member States shall submit their reports on the demonstration of progress achieved by 2005 to the UNFCCC secretariat by 1 January 2006 and shall on the same date provide the Commission with an electronic copy of that submission.

Article 23 U.K. Reporting on the determination of the assigned amount pursuant to Article 8(1)(e) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

1. Each Member State shall, by 15 January 2006, submit the following information to the Commission:

(a) the complete time series of inventories of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol as reported to the UNFCCC;

(b) the identification of its selected base year for hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride as reported to the UNFCCC;

(c) its proposal for its emission level in terms of tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent pursuant to Article 3 of Decision 2002/358/EC and Article 3(7) and (8) of the Kyoto Protocol, following the establishment of definitive base-year emission figures and on the basis of the quantified emission limitation or reduction commitments set out in Annex II to Decision 2002/358/EC and the Kyoto Protocol, taking into account the methodologies for estimating anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks referred to in Article 5(2) of the Kyoto Protocol and the modalities for the calculation of assigned amount pursuant to Article 3(7) and (8) of the Kyoto Protocol.

(d) the calculation of its commitment period reserve as 90 % of its proposed assigned amount or 100 % of five times its most recently reviewed inventory, whichever is the lowest;

(e) the identification of its selection of single minimum values for tree crown cover, land area and tree height for use in accounting for its activities under Article 3(3) and (4) of the Kyoto Protocol, together with a justification of the consistency of those values with the information that has been historically reported to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations or other international bodies, and in the case of difference, an explanation of why and how such values were chosen, in accordance with definitions, modalities, rules and guidelines relating to land use, land-use change and forestry activities under the Kyoto Protocol;

(f) the identification of its election of activities under Article 3(4) for inclusion in its accounting for the first commitment period, together with information on how its national system under Article 5(1) of the Kyoto Protocol will identify land areas associated with the activities, in accordance with definitions, modalities, rules and guidelines relating to land use, land-use change and forestry activities under the Kyoto Protocol;

(g) the identification of whether, for each activity under Article 3(3) and (4) of the Kyoto Protocol it intends to account annually or for the entire commitment period;

(h) a description of its national system in accordance with Article 5(1) of the Kyoto Protocol, in accordance with the guidelines under Article 7 of the Kyoto Protocol;

(i) a description of its national registry, in accordance with the guidelines under Article 7 of the Kyoto Protocol.

Member States not listed in Annex II to Decision 2002/358/EC shall submit this information by 15 June 2006.

2. The timetable for the preparation and submission of the reports referred to in Article 7(1) of Decision No 280/2004/EC and submitted in accordance with the modalities for the accounting of assigned amounts under Article 7(4) of the Kyoto Protocol is set out in Annex VII.

Article 24 U.K. Reporting in relation to the additional period for fulfilling commitments pursuant to Article 8(1)(f) of Decision No 280/2004/EC

1. The Member State reports upon expiration of the additional period for fulfilling commitments shall be submitted to the UNFCCC Secretariat and the Commission within one month after the expiration of the additional period for fulfilling commitments.

2. The Community report upon expiration of the additional period for fulfilling commitments shall be submitted to the UNFCCC Secretariat within one month after the receipt of the Member State reports referred to in paragraph 1.

CHAPTER VI U.K. Final provisions

Article 25 U.K. Entry into force

This Decision shall enter into force on the day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Article 26 U.K. Addressees

This Decision is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, 10 February 2005.

For the Commission

Stavros Dimas

Member of the Commission