Background

The MPGs, formulated to implement transparency in reporting under the Paris Agreement, defined specific new requirements for reporting the results of national GHG inventories. As such, information on national GHG inventory results should be included in a specific chapter of the BTR (Chapter I) and supporting information should be included in the annexes. In addition, all Parties must provide a national inventory report (NIR), which consists of a national inventory document (NID) and the common reporting tables (CRT), to the UNFCCC as part of each country´s BTR submission process.

Although many countries now count on the skills to prepare national GHG inventories, which were cultivated as part of the preparation of their previous National Communications and BUR, Sierra Leone is in the final stage of submitting its first BUR report.

Sierra Leone is in the initial stage of updating the current inventory that was used to prepare the updated NDC as part of their BTR. However, the task of reporting on the associated processes that lead to the development of inventories and on the data and results is also a key aspect of ensuring that countries comply with the transparency conditions established in Article 13 and can become a challenge for the countries.

The objective of the CBIT-GSP is to provide streamlined support and capacity-building at the national, regional, and global levels to assist developing countries in responding to the reporting provisions under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement’s Enhanced Transparency Framework and ultimately increase ambition for climate action. The CBIT-GSP plans to achieve this through multiple support modalities, including establishing and working 10 Regional Networks across the globe to foster south-south collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and learning among countries. The Regional Networks for Anglophone Africa are invited to participate in a joint training exercise on reporting the national GHG inventory under the MPGs, which was assessed as one of the priorities of capacity building for transparency in the regional networks. 

About Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone in 2020 received support from GEF under the CBIT window to strengthen the country build and strengthen Sierra Leone’s national capacity to implement the Paris Climate Agreement through the development of an effective transparency framework. The transparency framework will enable the government of Sierra Leone and other stakeholders to track impacts in prioritized sectors. The NDC for Sierra Leone covers the following areas: climate adaptation and financing, data collection and management inventory, information systems and technologies, Institutional arrangements, knowledge management and NDC tracking.

Based on the above status, the following has been done to support the transparency aspect in the country: the institutional arrangements have been established, key sector focal points have been identified and provided with capacity through training and provision of some tools to be able to collect and transfer data relating to greenhouse gases. The country is establishing an online NDC platform to track our NDC implementation, which will be housed in the EPA, which coordinates the country's CBIT implementation.

To this end, Sierra Leone requested the CBIT-GSP to provide support and capacity-building of Sierra Leone’s technical staff in responding to the reporting provisions under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement’s Enhanced Transparency Framework and ultimately increase ambition for climate action. Specifically, Sierra Leone’s technical staff will be trained on the key elements of developing the national GHG inventories under the ETF of the Paris Agreement for the AFOLU sector.

Objective

The purpose of the GHG Inventory Training, following the IPCC 2006 Guidelines for the Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector, is to enhance the capacity of technical experts in Sierra Leone in the compilation, analysis, and reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories. This hands-on training, incorporating the IPCC software, is designed to equip the participants with the necessary skills to improve their contributions to the national reporting under the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) of the Paris Agreement. The training aims to ensure that Sierra Leone's GHG inventories are accurate, comprehensive, and conform to UNFCCC modalities procedures and guidelines for reporting under the ETF, thus supporting informed policymaking and contributing to global efforts in combating climate change. The specific objectives are; 

• To strengthen the capacity of Sierra Loene’s technical experts in preparing and reporting GHG inventories under the ETF.
• To deepen the technical experts’ understanding of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for GHG inventories, focusing on methodologies, data collection, and reporting requirements for the AFOLU sector.
• To provide participants with practical skills in using the IPCC software for GHG inventory compilation and analysis. This includes training on data input, manipulation, and interpretation of outputs, enabling participants to accurately estimate GHG emissions and removals.
• Train national stakeholders on sectoral reporting on the inventory of emissions sources, sinks, and emissions reduction activities in the LULUCF sector consistent with the latest UNFCCC.