The 49th session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-49) took place in Kyoto from 8-12 May 2019. During the session, the Panel adopted the Overview Chapter of the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (2019 Refinement) and accepted the underlying report.  The 2019 Refinement is one of the outputs of the IPCC’s sixth assessment cycle and does NOT revise or replace the 2006 Guidelines. It provides updates and supplements to the 2006 Guidelines where gaps existed or where science was outdated. Thus, the Refinement should be applied in conjuction to the 2006 Guidelines. The Refinement compises the following volumes: general guidance and reporting; energy; industrial processes and product use; agriculture, forestry and other land uses; and waste. The overview chapter posted here is the version adopted during the 49th Session of the IPCC and is still subject to copy editing and layout.