Regulations, 2015

L.N. 259 of 2015

CLIMATE ACTION ACT

(CAP. 543)

National System For The Estimation Of Anthropogenic Greenhouse

Gas Emissions By Sources And Removals By Sinks

Regulations, 2015

IN exercise of the powers conferred by article 12 of the Climate

Action Act, the Minister for Sustainable Development, the

Environment and Climate Change, has made the following

regulations

(1) The title of these regulations is the National System

for the Estimation of Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Emissions by

Sources and Removals by Sinks Regulations, 2015.

(2) These regulations provide for the establishment of a

national system for the estimation and reporting of anthropogenic

greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks, in

accordance with the requirements of international treaties to which

Malta is a Party, and pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 525/2013.

Criteria for the operation of a national greenhouse

gas inventory system.

1. The national greenhouse gas inventory system shall be

operated to ensure that the national greenhouse gas

inventory is

(a)

transparent: meaning that the assumptions and

methodologies used for an inventory should be clearly

explained to facilitate replication and assessment of

the inventory by users of the reported information;

(b)

consistent: means that an inventory should be

internally consistent in all its elements with

inventories of other years. An inventory is consistent

if the same methodologies are used for the base and all

subsequent years and if consistent data sets are used to

estimate emissions or removals from sources or sinks;

(c)

comparable: means that estimates of emissions and

removals reported by Malta in inventories should be

comparable with estimates reported by other Annex I

Parties;

(d)

complete: means that an inventory covers all sources

and sinks, as well as all gases, included in the IPCC

Guidelines as well as other existing relevant source

and sink categories which are specific to Malta and,

therefore, may not be included in the IPCC

Guidelines. Completeness also means full geographic

coverage of sources and sinks of an Annex I Party;

(e)

accurate: means that estimates should be accurate in

the sense that they are systematically neither over nor

under true emissions or removals, as far as can be

judged, and that uncertainties are reduced as far as

practicable.

2. The national greenhouse gas inventory system shall be

operated to ensure the quality of the inventory through

planning, preparation and management of inventory

activities. Inventory activities include collecting activity

data, selecting methods and emission factors appropriately,

estimating anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions by

sources and removals by sinks, implementing uncertainty

assessment and quality assurance/quality control activities,

and carrying out procedures for the verification of the

inventory data at the national level.

3. The national greenhouse gas inventory system shall be

operated to enable compliance with commitments relating

to the estimation of anthropogenic greenhouse gas

emissions by sources and removals by sinks.

4. The national greenhouse gas inventory system shall be

operated to enable Malta to consistently estimate

anthropogenic emissions by all sources and removals by all

sinks of all greenhouse gases, as covered by the relevant

IPCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories

and IPCC good practice guidance, in accordance with

relevant decisions of the COP and, or, the COP/MOP.

5. The national greenhouse gas inventory system shall ensure

that sufficient capacity is available for timely performance

of the functions relevant to inventory preparation and

management.

6. The national greenhouse gas inventory systems shall ensure

the competency of persons involved in the inventory

development process.

In these regulations and unless the context otherwise

requires

"Act" means the Climate Action Act;

"Commission" means the European Commission;

"COP" means the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC;

"COP/MOP" means the Conference of the Parties serving as the

meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol;

"Decision 19/CMP.1" means Decision 19/CMP.1, Guidelines for

national systems under Article 5, paragraph 1, of the Kyoto Protocol;

"emissions" means the release of greenhouse gases and, or, their

precursors into the atmosphere over a specified area and period of

time;

"good practice" means a set of procedures intended to ensure

that greenhouse gas inventories are accurate in the sense that they are

systematically neither over- nor underestimated as far as can be

judged, and that uncertainties are reduced as far as possible, and may

cover choice of estimation methods appropriate to national

circumstances, quality assurance and quality control at the national

level, quantification of uncertainties, and data archiving and

reporting;

"greenhouse gas" means any gaseous constituent of the

atmosphere, both natural and anthropogenic, that absorbs and re-

emits infrared radiation;

"greenhouse gas inventory" means an accounting of greenhouse

gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol emitted to, or removed

from, the atmosphere over a period of time;

"IPCC" means the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change;

"inventory agency" means such body or person as designated by

the Single National Entity in terms of regulation 5;

"key source category" means a source category that is

prioritized within the national inventory because its estimate has

significant influence on the country’s total inventory of greenhouse

gases in terms of absolute level of emissions, the trend of emissions,

or both;

"Kyoto Protocol" means the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC;

"Minister" means the Minister responsible for climate change

policy;

"national greenhouse gas inventory system" means a system of

institutional, legal and procedural arrangements that is established

and maintained to ensure the transparency, consistency,

comparability, completeness and accuracy of national greenhouse gas

inventories and for reporting and archiving inventory information as

defined in Decision 19/CMP.1;

"person" means any natural or legal person;

"quality assurance" or "QA" means a planned system of review

procedures conducted by personnel not directly involved in the

inventory compilation development process, to verify that data

quality objectives are met, ensure that the inventory represents the

best possible estimate of emissions and sinks given the current state

of scientific knowledge and data available, and support the

effectiveness of the QC programme;

"quality control" or "QC" means a system of routine technical

activities to measure and control the quality of the inventory as it is

being developed, and designed to provide routine and consistent

checks to ensure data integrity, correctness and completeness,

identify and address errors and omissions, and document and archive

inventory material and record all quality control activities;

"recalculation" means a procedure for re-estimating

anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions by sources ad removals by

sinks of previously submitted inventories as a consequence of

changes in methodologies, changes in the manner in which emission

factors and activity data are obtained and used, or the inclusion of

new source and sink categories;

"Regulation (EU) No 525/2013" means Regulation (EU) No

525/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May

2013 on a mechanism for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas

emissions and for reporting other information at national and Union

level relevant to climate change and repealing Decision No 280/2004/

EC;

"single national entity" means the Minister responsible for

Climate Change, and such other body or person as the Minister may

prescribe and designate as the single national entity;

"sink" means any process, activity or mechanism which

removes a greenhouse gas, an aerosol or a precursor of a greenhouse

gas from the atmosphere;

"source" means any process or activity which releases a

greenhouse gas, an aerosol or a precursor of a greenhouse gas into the

atmosphere;

"UNFCCC" means the United Nations Framework Convention

on Climate Change.

Specific functions of the inventory agency relating

to inventory preparation and management.

Inventory preparation.

1. As part of inventory preparation, the inventory agency

shall

(a)

identify key source categories following the methods

described in the IPCC good practice guidance;

(b)

prepare estimates in accordance with the methods

described in the relevant IPCC guidelines for national

greenhouse gas inventories, as elaborated by the IPCC

good practice guidance, and ensure that appropriate

methods are used to estimate emissions from key

source categories;

(c)

collect sufficient activity data, process information

and emission factors as are necessary to support

methods selected for estimating anthropogenic

greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by

sinks;

(d)

make a quantitative estimate of inventory uncertainty

for each source category and for the inventory in total,

following the IPCC good practice guidance;

(e)

ensure that any recalculations of previously submitted

estimates of anthropogenic GHG emissions by sources

and removals by sinks are prepared in accordance with

the IPCC good practice guidance and relevant

decisions of the COP and, or, the COP/MOP,

Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 and relevant decisions

and regulations adopted by the Commission pursuant

to Regulation (EU) No 525/2013;

(f)

compile the national inventory in accordance with the

UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol, relevant decisions of

the COP and, or, the COP/MOP, Regulation (EU) No

525/2013 and relevant decisions and regulations

adopted by the Commission pursuant to Regulation

(EU) No 525/2013;

(g)

elaborate an inventory QA/QC plan which describes

specific QC procedures to be implemented during the

inventory development process, and implement

inventory QC procedures in accordance with its QA/

QC plan following the IPCC good practice guidance,

and in accordance with the quality objectives

established by the Single National Entity pursuant to

regulation 4.

2. The inventory agency should also

(a)

apply source-category-specific QC procedures for key

source categories and for those individual source

categories in which significant methodological and,

or, data revisions have occurred, in accordance with

the IPCC good practice guidance;

(b)

provide for a basic review of the inventory by

personnel that have not been involved in the inventory

development, preferably an independent third party,

before the submission of the inventory, in accordance

with the planned QA procedures referred to in

paragraph 1(g);

(c)

provide for a more extensive review of the inventory

for key source categories, as well as source categories

where significant changes in methods or data have

been made;

(d)

based on the reviews described in sub-paragraph (c)

and periodic internal evaluations of the inventory

preparation process, re-evaluate the inventory

planning process in order to meet the established

quality objectives referred to in paragraph 1(g).

Inventory management

1. As part of inventory management, the inventory agency

shall

(a)

archive inventory information for each year in

accordance with relevant decisions of the COP and/or

COP/MOP. This information shall include all

disaggregated emission factors, activity data, and

documentation about how these factors and data have

been generated and aggregated for the preparation of

the inventory. This information shall also include

internal documentation on QA/QC procedures,

external and internal reviews, documentation on

annual key sources and key source identification and

planned inventory improvements;

(b)

provide access to all archived information used to

prepare the inventory, to reviews undertaken pursuant

to the UNFCCC and Regulation (EU) No 525/2013;

(c)

respond to requests for clarifying inventory

information resulting from the different stages of the

review process of the inventory information, and

information on the national system, in a timely

manner in accordance with the UNFCCC and

Regulation (EU) No 525/2013.

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(1) A national greenhouse gas inventory system shall be

established and maintained.

(2) The national greenhouse gas inventory system shall be

operated in accordance with

(a)

the principles set out in Schedule 1;

(b)

relevant decisions of the COP and, or, COP/MOP;

and

(c)

relevant decisions and regulations adopted by the

Commission pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 525/2013.

(1) The Single National Entity shall have overall Designation and

responsibilities

responsibility for the national greenhouse gas inventory system.

of a Single

National Entity.

(2) The Single National Entity shall ensure that the national

greenhouse gas inventory system is operated in accordance with

(a)

the criteria set out in Schedule 1;

(b)

relevant decisions of the COP and, or, COP/MOP;

and,

(c)

relevant decisions and regulations adopted by the

Commission pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 525/2013.

(3) The Single National Entity shall

(a)

define and allocate specific responsibilities in the

inventory preparation process, including those related to choice

of methods, data collection, processing and archiving and

quality assurance and quality control, specifying the roles of,

and cooperation between, government agencies and other

entities involved in the preparation of the inventory, as well as

the institutional, legal and procedural arrangements made to

prepare the inventory;

(b) shall establish quality objectives for the national

greenhouse gas inventory system;

(c)

establish processes for the independent review,

official consideration and approval of national greenhouse gas

inventory reports; and

(d) ensure the timely submission of national greenhouse

gas inventory reports in accordance with relevant decisions of

the COP and, or, the COP/MOP, and Regulation (EU) No 525/

2013.

(1) The Single National Entity shall by order in the Designation and

gazette nominate a person or body to be the competent Inventory responsibilities

of an Inventory

Agency to carry out the functions set out in Schedule 2 and to Agency.

perform such other functions as the Single National Entity may

consider appropriate in relation to the operation of these regulations.

(2) Such person or body shall be nominated for such a period

as the Single National Entity may determine and the Single National

Entity shall have the power at any time to prolong, renew or terminate

such nomination by order in the Gazette.

(3) Such person or body shall ensure that it acts in accordance

with

(a)

the principles set out in Schedule 1;

(b)

relevant decisions of the COP and, or, COP/MOP;

and,

(c)

relevant decisions and regulations adopted by the

Commission pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 525/2013.

(4) The Inventory Agency shall, annually, and in accordance

with deadlines established by the COP and, or the COP/MOP and

deadlines set out in Regulation (EU) No 525/2013, prepare a national

greenhouse gas inventory report in accordance with relevant

decisions of the COP and, or, the COP/MOP, and Regulation (EU) No

525/2013.

(1) The Single National Entity and, or, the Inventory

Agency may identify data providers, including, inter alia,

government agencies, who shall provide, to the Single National Entity

and, or, the Inventory Agency, data and information necessary for the

preparation of the national greenhouse gas inventory.

(2) The Single National Entity and, or, the Inventory Agency

may request any Department, Authority, Agency, Corporation or any

such body or persons to provide any data and information necessary

for the preparation of the Greenhouse Gas Inventory.

(3) The Single National Entity and, or, the Inventory Agency

upon identifying data providers in terms of sub-regulation (1) or upon

requesting any data or information from any such body or person in

terms of sub-regulation (2) shall determine the format and deadlines

for the provisions of such data and or information.

(4) Pursuant to sub-regulation (1), the Single National Entity

and, or, the Inventory Agency may establish arrangements with such

data providers to define the type of data and information to be

provided.

It shall be the duty of the Minister to, every year, and by

not later than two (2) months after the date of submission of the

national greenhouse gas inventory report relating to that year as

established pursuant to the UNFCCC, lay before Parliament the

report on national greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals

by sinks.