National Communications

Under Articles 4 and 12 of the Convention, Parties are requested to prepare national communications to report measures and emissions.

Overall, Annex I CEE and NIS countries are taking their Climate Convention reporting responsibilities seriously and have submitted at least one national communication to the UNFCCC Secretariat. Many countries have submitted a second communication, as requested by the Parties to the Convention.

Patterns that emerged in the national communication submissions include:

1. All national communications were prepared with substantial participation from private, parastatal and foreign organizations. In addition to government bodies, the main actors typically involved in preparing the communications include NGOs, private companies, universities, and research institutes.

   Most countries also relied on international financial assistance to compile emissions inventories. In Romania, for example, bilateral and multilateral cooperation from the United States Country Studies Program, Global Environment Facility/UNDP and the European Union's PHARE program on renewable energy have all contributed to the production of the national communication.

2. As with other Annex I countries, the accuracy, transparency and verifiability of emission estimates and projections in CEE and NIS countries vary considerably. The Estonian national communication, for example, notes that uncertainty over activity data could be as high as 25 percent.

   Measurement uncertainties are compounded by sensitivity over energy data because of its close association with security concerns. This places further limitations on the availability of fuel data and increases information costs.

3. A combination of other factors, unique to CEE and NIS countries, complicates reporting and accounting of GHG emissions.
   • First, many of the countries filing communications -- including Croatia, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Baltic countries -- did not exist in their current geographic or political form during the "base year." Complicated backcasting studies are often required to determine the emission levels of sources or regions.

   • Second, data often requires input from multiple government bodies. Radical government restructuring during the early 1990s altered the compositions and responsibilities of government ministries, making concerted efforts to gather data inherently difficult.

   • Finally, economic collapse in the early 1990s de-prioritized the gathering of economic data and other national statistics in many countries. Adding to this difficulty is the fact that many governments are reluctant to re-launch extensive data collection efforts related to industry or commercial activity because of an aversion to state intrusion in the private sector and fear of being perceived as reverting to a command economy.

The consequences of these inherent difficulties and capacity deficits will become greater under the Kyoto Protocol.