| Overview : The Republic of South Africa ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in August 1997 and is therefore required to undertake several initiatives in responding to climate change. The main objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize Greenhouse Gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous human-induced interference with the climate system. The ability of South Africa to achieve this objective is highly dependent on the accurate knowledge of emissions trends and on our collective ability to alter these trends. Article 4, paragraph 1(a) and Article 12, paragraph 1(a), of the convention provide for each Party to periodically prepare and report national GHG emissions and removals to the Conference of the Parties (COP) of the convention. The key mechanism for reporting GHG emissions is through the National Inventory Report, the National Communication, and the Biennial Update Reports. According to Decision 17/CP.8,3 each non-Annex I Party, under which South Africa is classified, shall, as appropriate and to the extent possible, provide in its national inventory, on gas-by-gas basis and in mass units, estimates of anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) by sources and removals by sinks. The overall objective of the project is to appoint GHG inventory consultancy team for the provision of greenhouse gas inventory expertise that will support the compilation of the National GHG Inventory Report for South Africa for a period of 18 months mainly for the Agriculture Forestry and Land Use (AFOLU) and support compilation for other Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sectors (Waste, Energy and Industrial process and product use (IPPU)). |
