United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Cross Country Comparison/Aggregation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data for African Countries; 1990 to 2014

Abstract

Climate Change is a complex problem, which, although environment in nature, has consequences for all spheres of existence on our planet. At the very heart of the response to Climate Change lies the need to reduce emissions. Maintaining national Greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories provided by Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) offers the means to monitor the trend of GHG emissions worldwide. Under the UNFCCC, all Parties are required to provide national Greenhouse Gas (GHS) inventories. A perusal of available GHG data, from the UNFCCC website and from such reliable sources as the World’s Development Indicators of the World Bank, indicates that the inventories are not up-to-date. The Greenhouse Gas Information System (GHGIS) of UNFCCC’s secretariat enables inventories to be searched and presented at various levels of detail, and in different combinations. Using data from GHG inventories of African countries, this paper contains illustrations of the kinds of Cross-Country Comparison/Aggregation of GHG inventories data, which can be generated by the GHGIS.