2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories: Overview

The 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (2006 IPCC Guidelines) which were published in 2006 provide methodologies for estimating national inventories of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases. This IPCC Methodology Report titled the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (2019 Refinement) was published in 2019 to refine the 2006 IPCC Guidelines with the aim to provide an updated and sound scientific basis for supporting the preparation and continuous improvement of national greenhouse gas inventories. 

In order to achieve this overall aim, the 2019 Refinement:

• Provides supplementary methodologies for sources and sinks of greenhouse gases only where currently there are gaps or where new technologies and production processes have emerged requiring elaborated methodologies or for sources and sinks that were not well covered by the 2006 IPCC Guidelines;
• Provides updated default values of emission factors and other parameters based on the latest available
  scientific information only where significant differences from the default values presented in the 2006 IPCC Guidelines are identified;
• Provides additional or alternative up-to-date information and guidance, where possible, as clarification or elaboration of existing guidance in the 2006 IPCC Guidelines.

The 2019 Refinement does not revise the 2006 IPCC Guidelines, but updates, supplements and/or elaborates the 2006 IPCC Guidelines where gaps or out-of-date science have been identified. It does not replace the 2006 IPCC Guidelines, but should be used in conjunction with the 2006 IPCC Guidelines and, where indicated, with the 2013 Supplement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories: Wetlands (Wetlands Supplement).