Chapter 7 Australian Participation in the IPCCC

Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories

The only element of IPCC work that does not relate strictly to assessment is the Programme on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories which, up till early 1999, was conducted jointly by the IPCC, OECD and IEA. At its fourteenth session in Vienna, the IPCC established a Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (TFI) which is supported by a Technical Support Unit at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) in Japan. As well as its work on revised inventory reporting guidelines for the UNFCCC, the TFI drafted a paper on Uncertainties and Good Practices in Inventory Management which was considered by IPCC XVI in May 2000.

The TFI Bureau is co-chaired by Japan and Brazil, with I Carruthers of the Australian Greenhouse Office serving as a member. Figure 7.4 shows the current TFI Bureau.

Consideration was given to the TFI becoming a fourth Working Group. However, at the Eighteenth Session of the IPCC in London it was decided that it would remain as a Task Force. The TFI cochairs did become members of the IPCC Bureau at the Nineteenth session, replacing two of the Vice-chair positions.