As a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Austria is required to produce and regularly update National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. Methodologies, content and format of the inventory are prescribed by the IPCC (IPCC, 2006) in its reporting guidelines that have been agreed by the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention. A complete inventory submission requires a National Inventory Report and the common reporting format tables. With Decision 24/CP.19 (FCCC/CP/2013/10/Add.3) the revision of the UNFCCC reporting guidelines on annual inventories for Parties included in Annex I to the Convention were adopted (Annex I), containing revised common reporting format tables (Annex II) and global warming potential values (Annex III). According to this decision an annual GHG inventory submission shall consist of an National Inventory Report (NIR) and CRF tables. The report also presents GHG data relevant under the Effort-sharing decision (target period 2013-2020). It is submitted to the European Commission in fulfilment of Austria’s obligations under Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 525/20131 (‘Monitoring Mechanism Regulation’; MMR) repealing Decision No 280/2004/EC2 (‘Monitoring Mechanism Decision’; MMD) relating to a mechanism for monitoring Community greenhouse gas emissions and for implementing the Kyoto Protocol. The purpose of this decision is to monitor all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions not controlled by the Montreal Protocol3 and to evaluate the progress towards meeting the greenhouse gas reduction commitments under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol.
