Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Pacific Island Countries

Abstract

A national Greenhouse Gas Inventory (GHGI) outlines estimates of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from various sectors of a country such as energy, agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU), waste and industrial processes and product use (IPPU). The accuracy and consistency of the inventory is a basic requirement to ensure reliability of the estimates so that opportunities for potential reductions could be realized that would eventually lead to the development of low emission scenarios to achieve near zero emissions by 2050. An analysis of the second national communications of Pacific Island Countries (PICs) to UNFCCC shows that most of the emissions from PICs are from the energy sector and probably explains why Fiji’s NDC Roadmap focuses on 30% emission reduction in the energy sector by 2030. This chapter discusses the IPCC 2006 guidelines to estimate emissions of CO2 and other non-CO2 greenhouse gases from different sectors. The uncertainties in emission estimates are discussed with more focus on data availability in the PICs. Research needed to derive country specific emission factors are also highlighted for certain sectors.