Reporting greenhouse gas emissions
Monitoring and reporting internationally and in the EU
Monitoring and reporting is carried out to follow the implementation of international and EU climate policy. Finland reports on the volumes of greenhouse gas emissions and progress made in climate policy both to the European Commission and to the Secretariat of the UN Convention on Climate Change.
The rules for the reporting of emissions are laid down in the decisions under the UN Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement. As Parties to the agreements, the EU and its Member States must report to the UN:
- annually, on greenhouse gas emissions and removals (greenhouse gas inventory)
- regularly, on the national implementation of climate policy (National Communication) and, every two years, on the emission reduction targets declared for the Paris Agreement and progress towards achieving these (Biennial Report).
The data for the greenhouse gas inventory is produced in accordance with the IPCC’s procedures manual adopted at the Conferences of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change and requirements of the international climate agreements, and the global warming potential (GWP100) factors in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) are used in the reporting.
The reporting of greenhouse gases is supervised and the data is verified as required by international guidelines. The reports of the Parties are evaluated by an international review team and sanctions may be imposed if any shortcomings are found in the reporting.
The EU regulatory framework for the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions is laid down by the Energy Union Governance Regulation, Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1208 and Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/1044.
Finland reports to the European Commission
- annually, on the greenhouse gas emissions and sinks (greenhouse gas inventory)
- annually, on instant preliminary data on greenhouse gas emissions and sinks (greenhouse gas inventory, rougher calculation)
- every two years, on progress reports concerning integrated national energy and climate plans (NECP) in accordance with Article 17 of the Energy Union Governance Regulation
- every two years, on greenhouse gas policies and measures and projections in accordance with Article 18 of the Energy Union Governance Regulation
Statistics Finland serves as the national body responsible for the greenhouse gas inventory. Provisions on this role are laid down in the Climate Act.
National monitoring and reporting
Provisions on the monitoring and reporting related to climate policy are laid down in the national Climate Act. Every year, the Government submits an Annual Climate Report to Parliament that describes the trends in emissions and sinks in Finland, the emission reduction measures that have been implemented and their adequacy relative to the targets.
More information
Hanne Siikavirta, Senior Specialist, Ministry of the Environment, tel. +358 295 250 049, firstname.lastname@gov.fi