James Barton

James P Barton & Associates Limited

New Zealand's GHG inventory – A beginners guide for NZ statisticians

The compilation of annual national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories in the Environment sphere is a complex estimation exercise which has become as significant as National Accounting is in the Economy sphere. For New Zealand it is now a requirement under the Kyoto Protocol (KP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). The presentation will briefly introduce key concepts used in GHG inventory reporting, how the UNFCC GHG Inventory is currently completed for New Zealand and the implications for New Zealand if it is done poorly. Trends and uncertainties will be illustrated for key sectors and the implications of the Compliance Equation will be outlined. In this way it is hoped that some of the statistical alchemistry used in GHG accounting and reporting will become a little clearer for NZ statisticians.