Category: National governments, Emission inventories

GHG inventory and QA/QC assistance in South Africa

On the road towards establishing a sustainable GHG inventory, Aether assisted South Africa's Department of Environmental Affairs to establish a National System for regular GHG estimation, analysis and reporting.

On the road towards establishing a sustainable Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventory, South Africa wanted to make sure that they had a high quality national GHG inventory system. With this purpose, Aether has worked together with the Department of Environmental Affairs of the Republic of South Africa, as well as Gondwana and the North-West University. The team has provided hands-on support in the development of South Africa’s institutional arrangements, work plans, data systems, QA/QC systems and improvement plans.

The challenge

South Africa’s national circumstances determine the level required for their inventory compilation. Despite being a non-Annex I country to the UNFCCC, the country is committed to developing a high-quality inventory system.

The solution

During 2015 to 2017, Aether provided hands-on support in the development of South Africa’s institutional arrangements, work plans, data systems, QA/QC systems and improvement plans.  A key solution in meeting South Africa’s needs is the development of a national system portal. Launched in 2016, the online portal facilitates communication between both internal and external stakeholders, and ensures retention of institutional memory with thorough documentation.  The inventory has further been improved through the adoption of best practice compilation templates, including QA/QC checklists and Aether’s QA/QC tool ‘QA Analyst’.  To facilitate engagement and communication with the inventory team, as well as other stakeholders, the project incorporates multiple in-country visits and stakeholder engagement activities, as well as virtual training courses.

The result

The work will ensure that South Africa can develop and maintain a high-quality data collection, analysis and reporting system for GHG emission trends. Through this process, the system will meet the needs of its climate action policy-makers to track and develop effective policies.
Outputs will inform and engage stakeholders and the public. The system will also support transparent, high-quality reporting to the UNFCCC in support of Biennial Update Reports (BURs) and National Communications (NCs).

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Sefton Council - for the Merseyside Atmospheric Emissions Inventory

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Luanne Stevens, Gondwana

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Clare Bayley, Defra

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Fiona Glover, States of Jersey

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Javier Cano Martín, Professional Unit for Climate Change and Environmental Services, CONAF (National Forestry Corporation), Chile

“Aether is a great partner for work in the area of European Air Emissions. The team was committed, reliable, well organised and had a deep technical understanding and motivated other partners with their good spirit.”

Umweltbundesamt: Environment Agency Austria

“From their winning bid to final delivery, Aether's work with North Norfolk District Council was positive and thorough. They brought a clear understanding of the challenges local authorities face regarding carbon emissions and quickly understood the unique nature of the Coastwise project. Communication was effective, and the outcomes combined a depth of research with real-world utility for the council's activities around carbon emissions and mitigation.”

Alastair Zangs, North Norfolk District Council

“Aether's approach to couple innovative visualisation with high expertise manpower delivered valuable insights for our inventory work.”

Umweltbundesamt (Germany)

“Saint Lucia embraces the professional approach with which this project was undertaken by Aether, particularly their ability to develop mentorship relations with local government experts. This provides a basis for ensuring that the pool of local experts remain engaged and recognized over successive processes.”

Annette Rattigan-Leo, Chief Sustainable Development and Environment Officer

“It has been a pleasure to work with Chris Dore and Richard Claxton from Aether: they did their job in a very professional and timely manner. The workshop was organized and carried out in a cooperative spirit; the information provided to the workshop participants was complete and clear.”

Alina Novikova, UN/ECE Secretariat

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