Understanding how pollutant emissions will evolve in the future is essential for designing effective policies today. Under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, the Task Force on Emission Inventories and Projections (TFEIP) supports Parties in the reporting of official air pollutant emissions and projections data to the Convention. It also provides a technical forum and expert network to identify problems related to data reporting.
Knowing what the sources of different pollutants are and understanding how emissions develop over a certain time span in the future is essential for clean air policy development. Information on emission projections and scenarios can help policymakers to devise policies that make the most impact while taking into account the available resources in a given country.
At this year’s meeting of the Task Force (Sofia, Bulgaria, 25-27 April 2018), experts discussed questions related to verification of emission estimates, experiences in emission inventory developments, and emissions from sectors, such as combustion and industry, transport, and agriculture and nature.
In addition, the meeting featured a workshop for participants from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia to assist Parties with their inventories, projections and scenario development. Workshop facilitators provided a hands-on training on projections and scenarios and worked with participants on their national datasets. The results of the discussions and the training can help Parties refine their data, which in turn makes it a more reliable source for policymakers to base their policy decisions on.