The German QA/QC programme

EU Workshop on QC/QA of greenhouse gas inventories and the establishment of national inventory systems The German QA/QC programme

overview • QA/QC plan QA/QC plan Quality control Quality assurance Verification Quality manual Quality management system Documentation, archiving Resources needed for QA/QC and QMS National inventory system and annual inventory process

QA/QC plan objectives of the national QA/QC programme To provide a transparent, consistent, comparable, complete, accurate and timely inventory and inventory report to the UNFCCC and the EU Commision. To establish appropriate QA/QC-Procedures in order to comply with the requirements under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. To provide assistance for the implementation of the German QA/QC Programme and for the improvement of the emission inventory preparation.

QA/QC plan Stage of development of the national QA/QC programme Quality system on emission inventories (QSE) established 2003 QA/QC hand book (final draft) QA-Plan, QC-Plan, improvement plan, inventory plan and QA/QC check lists are completed as draft and will be separate parts in one planning tool (planning and steering instrument - PlaSte) 2 training lessons for UBA (in January for inventory experts and in July 2004 for heads of sections)

Quality control Implementation of the requirements of the IPCC Tier 1 general inventory level QC procedures routinely conduction of manual and automated QC only takes place in the single national entity so far. It is planned to enforce the QSE-hand book for UBA in September 2004 via an directive for the agency. The QC shall take place yearly and in parallel with the inventory preparation. Results shall be documented via checklists and in future also within the data base ZSE.

Quality control Implementation of the IPCC Tier 2 QC procedures Tier 1 and Tier 2 QC procedures will be implemented jointly for emission factors, activity data and emissions. Tier 1 and Tier 2 QC procedures are described as draft version in the German planning and steering instrument (PlaSte).

Quality control data collected by external organisations • difficulty:data collected by external organisations is beyond responsibility of inventory agency.A regulation to address this task will be needed! QC checks for emission estimates prepared by external institutions or data collected by external agencies, companies or consultants task is addressed in QA/QC hand book procedures are not yet established in practice obligation is indirectly addressed within the QC procedures for data collection of inventory experts

Quality control Planned procedure for choice of EF Assessment of the applicability of default EF quality of country specific EF must be comparable or higher than default EF difference must be significant and due to country specific circumstances in the source category QC checks for country-specific emission factors reliable availability of data source time series since 1990 available uncertainty estimationsconvenient level of data documentation implementation of appropriate QC procedures

Quality control results of QC checks which are already implemented Routine QC-checks were undertaken by the single national entity for selected source categories of inventory 2004 according to a preliminary check list. The results showed difficulties in the transparency of the inventory as a consequence of the high degree of - country specific EF and methods in the inventory- individual documentation practices- the high degree of inventory staff fluctuation. The experience was taken into account in the QA/QC concept and in the design of the advanced check list.

Quality assurance review procedures in place by personnel not directly involved in the inventory compilation process project on the development of the QSE (11/02 – 06/04): interviews with UBA experts on the state of inventory development of Improvement Plan (draft) planned cross country review with Finland in cooperation with the UNFCCC Sekretariat (08/04 in Fin, 10/04 in Ger) planned Workshop on the German national system on emissions inventories (NaSE) with NGO on selected issues (11/04)

Quality assurance results of already implemented QA procedures So far most of the QA procedures are undertaken by the single national entity (SNE). There is a good awareness about the inventory quality and actions to be undertaken to meet the requirements in the SNE. Outside the SNE awareness is growing but still not sufficiently developed. Information flow, clear responsibilities and quality control - including consequences - are crucial drivers for inventory improvement.

Quality assurance results of already implemented QA procedures Despite the big effort that had been made over the last two years, capacity building does not take place in the necessary quantity and quality. Experience of review procedures by personnel not directly involved in the inventory compilation process: the acceptance of findings as deficiencies increases but decreases with regard to solutions  potential of direct use of results in the inventory process is restricted for inventory improvement, additional work and guidance by the SNE is necessary in any case

Verification external verification processes implemented or planned Bilateral Meetings with industry associations (e.g. cement production, lime production) Research Projects involving industry associations (e.g. on F-Gases, derived fuels) project on the development of a national system:- comparison of German inventory with other national inventories- discussion of inventory and missing data with experts from industry associations, scientific institutions and independent experts (planned NaSE workshop).

Quality Manual elements of the Quality manual (QSE handbook) objectives of the national QA/QC programme Procedural and institutional organisation of the QSE Guidance for the Uncertanty estimation (Tier 1 & 2) Guidance on documentation & on archiving Guidelines for data formats QA/QC-plan and QA/QC-check lists Improvement plan, inventory plan

Quality management system Objectives, definitions and standards Integrated solution (joint concept)QA/QC as part of the inventory preparation process Practice relationQA/QC Procedures taking into account different organisational circumstances and experiences Issue oriented information and management system specific QA/QC Guidance for different roles multifunctional planning and steering tool (PlaSte)  defined objectives & minimum requirements but individual solutions

Quality management system (QMS) integrated concept for QA/QC & national system & inventory National System (NaSE) • Central System on Emissions (ZSE) •  Provide data base • Quality System on emission inventories (QSE) establish appropriate QA/QC procedures • Emission Inventory • (CRF/NIR) • Transparency, • Consistency, • Comparability, • Completeness, • Accuracy, • Timeliness. improvement activities National Improvement Programspecific objectives, criterias, responsibilities and activities experiences experiences & results

Documentation, archiving Implementedrequirements for documentation and archiving

Resources required national QA/QC plan, development & implementation of QMS & training • In the integrated concept, most of the staff is involved in QC as well as in inventory preparation and training. A clear distinguish of resources between QC and inventory preparation is not possible. • The QSE has defined roles for the different functions which are attributed to Persons by source category.One person can be attributed to several roles. • Since QC is only being started, overall resources cannot be calculated.

Resources involved at state national QA/QC plan, development & implementation of QMS • Roles in the single national entity: 1 NaSE coordinator (incl. NaSE workshops, training) 1 QA/QC coordinator (incl. QMS & QA/QC training) 1 data base coordinator (ZSE) (incl. software training) 1 NIR coordinator 8 source category specific contact persons • Further roles in the inventory preparing agency: 6 contact persons (1 for each department)12 Persons in charge for quality control (heads)33 experts responsible for inventory preparation & QC

Resources involved at state national QA/QC plan, development & implementation of QMS • difficulty: at state involved resources are less than resources required (especially outside the SNE)! • Roles in other governmental institutions (for Agriculture and LULUCF): 2 contact personsNN Persons in charge for quality control3 experts responsible for inventory preparation & QC • several non governmental staff involved in specific activities

Quality control / Quality assurance general functions reporting / information Nationalinventorysystem: The German NaSEshall involve all German institutions with good expertise on issues necessary for inventory preparation. federal ministries and institutions Single NationalEntity(UBA) Institutions of the German Länder Industry scientific institutions independent experts information delivery

National inventory system institutional arrangements and procedures All procedures are planned to be implemented in the whole institutional framework. existing institutional framework:- UBA- Working group on emissions inventories- topic area emissions inventories in the “CO2 reduction” interministerial working group- Working Group on Energy Balances of the Länder Missing institutional arrangements:subordinated governmental organisations (e.g. DESTATIS) & NGO (e.g. industry associations)

National inventory system Other aspects • The database system is the Central System on emission inventories (ZSE) on the basis of MESAP software. • An improvement plan is to be set up by the QA/QC coordinator on indication of the experts responsible for inventory preparation & QC. A binding inventory plan is extracted of the improvement plan by the QA/QC coordinator in cooperation with source category specific contact persons of the SNE and inventory experts.

National inventory system Other aspects (2) • Expert judgements have been made according to the Guidance for the Uncertanty estimation but not for all source categories. The Documentation is not completed yet. • The Acquiring additional resources to the establishment of the national inventory system is related to the Ministeries in charge according to their responsibilities. • Additional legislation is considered necessary with regard to institutional responsibilities and financing.

The German QA/QC programme