The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international environmental treaty which aims to stabilise Greenhouse Gas (GHGs) concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. The United Republic of Tanzania ratified the UNFCCC in April 1996. This convention calls on member states to reduce GHGs in the atmosphere which are sources of climate change.
The UNFCCC also calls for Parties to submit their National Communications (NCs) every four years and biennial update reports (BURs) every two years. Both of these processes will need information from a national GHGs inventory. The Parties also need to set up a domestic Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system of domestically supported Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) and undertaking MRV of REDD+ (Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks) activities for the purpose of obtaining and receiving results-based incentives. In addition, under the provisions of the Paris Agreement, countries will be expected to submit updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) every five years, which will represent a progression beyond the Country’s current NDCs, to reflect its highest possible ambition.
The United Republic of Tanzania has been reporting on the GHGs inventory through her NCs submitted to the UNFCCC secretariat. The Initial National Communication (INC) was submitted in 2003, while the Second National Communication was submitted in 2015. The recent GHGs inventory which considered the reference period of 1994 – 2014 was carried out in 2018.
However previous inventories and projections that were used in the previous NCs were compiled within individual projects by external consultants. As such, there was no data management process in place because there was no designated national management team for the co-ordination and compilation of the national GHGs inventory and projections. GHGs inventory skills are currently present for Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF) sector only, thus should be developed within other sectors. Consequently, the MRV Systems for other sectors have not yet been established in Tanzania.
Tanzania is working towards establishing sustainable MRV Systems in line with international requirements and best practice. This will not happen quickly and will need years of investment and development before it can be achieved. It will need resource mobilization to ensure that the MRV Systems and their outputs (such as regular national GHGs inventories) are sustainably improved and developed.
NCMC was actively involved in the process of the National GHGs inventory through which the National Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) inventory report of 2018 was produced. The process also yielded the GHGs Inventory MRV System and its management Plan. Due to its experience gained during the Forest Reference Emission Level development which generated useful MRV system for the LULUCF sector, NCMC was given a coordination role for the National GHGs Inventory MRV system. With this new role, NCMC need to establish MRV systems for the other four sectors of Agriculture, Energy, Industrial Processes and Waste Management.
It is against this background that NCMC engaged national experts who participated in the 2018 National GHGs Inventory for Agriculture, Energy, Industrial Processes and Waste Management sectors to review the databases used and collect and analyse new datasets for improvement. The first meeting of the experts took place from 13th to 17th September 2021 while second one was held from 18th to 22nd October 2021.
Group photo of the experts participated in the second expert workshop
Self introduction of the experts at the beginning of the second expert workshop
Experts careful listening group work progress presentation
Discussion of the group work progress presentation
For more information please contact;
Prof. Eliakimu Zahabu,
The National Carbon Monitoring Centre (NCMC),
Sokoine University of Agriculture,
P.O. Box 3009,
Morogoro, Tanzania.
E-Mail: ncmctanzania@sua.ac.tz
