Air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions: monitoring mechanism and implementation of the Kyoto Protocol

PURPOSE : to replace Council Decision 93/389/EEC and to establish a monitoring mechanism for Community Greenhouse gas emissions and the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. CONTENT : the aims of the proposed revision of Decision 93/389/EEC are to: - reflect in the monitoring mechanism reporting obligations and guidelines for the implementation of the UN Framework convention on Climate Change ("UNFCCC") and the Kyoto Protocol, on which the political agreements and legal decisions were taken at the seventh Conference of the Parties ("COP7") in Marrakech; - provide for further information on emission forecasts at Member State and Community-level, and harmonisation of these emission forecasts, in the light of experience with the current Monitoring Mechanism; - address reporting requirements and implementation relating to the burden-sharing between the Community and its Member States. The European Community ratified the Kyoto Protocol on 31 May 2002. This proposal will help the Community and the Member States comply with reporting requirements under both the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol and in general enhance the timeliness, consistency, accuracy, completeness, transparency and comparability of reported information. The Monitoring Mechanism Decision 93/389/EEC provides for the detail of obligations to be implemented through guidelines adopted by comitology, taking account of the rather technical nature of the agreed UNFCCC guidelines. This proposal makes similar provision, although it is considered appropriate to provide for a number of more important provisions in the decision itself. In order to limit the reporting tasks of Member States, under the new reporting requirements, only data that is of interest at Community level will have to be provided. In addition, adjustments will be made to the frequency of data submission. Following the structure of the Kyoto Protocol and the related UNFCCC guidelines, different reporting requirements will be addressed by distinguishing annual and periodical reporting obligations. Member States' Climate Change programmes and projections do not change on an annual basis and it is therefore proposed to shift the annual reporting to periodical reporting. However, more detailed provisions are included on the type of projections because experience with the current provisions has shown the need for more comprehensive and detailed data in this area. The due date for the annual data submission by Member States to the Commission is changed from 31 December to the following 15 January. Decision 93/389/EEC has already been substantially amended by Decision 99/296/EC. The extensive further amendments proposed to Decision 93/389/EEC widen its scope to cover areas including registries, flexible mechanisms and co-operation in procedures under the Kyoto Protocol. For these reasons it is considered appropriate to replace it, rather than to amend it. A correlation table is annexed to the proposal.�