The IPCC’s Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventories met with nearly 50 country and agency experts at the end of February in Yokohama to take stock of the options related to existing MRV systems and the potential applicability of these systems to a wider number of countries. Discussions centered on the elements of current guidelines that should be revised or improved.

The meeting also stressed the need to organize some thematic workshops with a particular focus on “stratification” concepts in forest inventories, the use of TIER 3 models to solve particular aspects of GHG emission estimates, and the use of “conservativeness” in uncertain estimates related to GHG emissions and removal data.

This review phase and in depth analysis will help IPCC prepare for when the Conference of the Parties (COP) will officially require a complete revision or an improvement of the guidelines currently in use.

This workshop in Yokohama was part of a series of expert meetings IPCC plans on holding in 2010 to understand which parts of the guidelines under Decision -/CP.15¹ need to be improved to better support countries in their future compliance to the expected REDD+ mechanism.

Decision -/CP.15 stated that the most recent IPCC guidelines have to be used to produce GHGs balance estimates under REDD+, but it also recalled the need for future efforts by IPCC to improve such guidelines so as to respond in a more adequate and comprehensive way to REDD+ reporting requirements.

¹Decision-/CP.15 pertains to methodological guidance for activities relating to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries adopted by COP 15 in Copenhagen on December 2009.