6. Special Functionalities

John Watterson & Melissa Downes

Covering …

• Documentation boxes, Comments, Hints and Instructions

• Checking (data validation)– consistency– recalculation– completeness

• Recalculation explanations

What are the components of theCRF Reporter window called!

1. Menu bar

2. Toolbar

4. Navigation tree

5. Data grid

7. Documentation

3. View bar

8. Chart window

6. Recalculation panel

9. Status bar

Documentation boxesComments

Hints Instructions

Category & Year specific documentation

Adding comments to a cell in the data grid

Adding comments to explain IE or NE

Adding comments to a whole row

Where do these comments appear?

• Where do these comments appear in the Excel output?– Example Excel output– James Grabert to comment!

Hints and instructions

Documentation box instructions

‘Balloon help’ on mouse over

menus and some cells

Notes on the coverage of the categories and

other information

Checking – Data validation

Consistency Completeness Recalculation

What checks does theCRF Reporter have ‘built in’?

The CRF Reporter tool is supplied with different integrated check mechanisms

• Preventive functions– e.g. cannot enter NO in AD cell if there are emissions

reported for the category

• Simple screening mechanisms– (e.g. identifying missing data)– Chart function displays trends in data inputs and helps in

defining input mistakes and big deviations– ‘traffic light’ system in the navigation tree to indicate

completeness

What checks does theCRF Reporter have ‘built in’?

The CRF Reporter tool supplied with different integrated check mechanisms

• Special checks intended to monitor– big changes in the trends– inconsistencies in data entered e.g.

notation keys– to check for any change compared to

previous inventory submission

Data validation is key

• Data validation is part of finalizing the work, both on

– a given sector and– as part of the completion of the annual

national inventory

• Do the validation before submission – or the FCCC expert reviewers will detect the problems anyway!

Menu options

Consistency checks

The consistency of the inventory is one of the main requirements according the UNFCCC reporting guidelines.

• Consistency means that an inventory should be internally consistent in all its elements with inventories of other years. An inventory is consistent if the same methodologies are used for the base and all subsequent years and if consistent data sets are used to estimate emissions or removals from sources or sinks.

Consistency checks

• To facilitate Parties in meeting the consistency requirement, CRF Reporter has integrated checks for– Change in the values of AD, EM, IEF,

all elements over the time series– Change in reporting between years

from notation keys to values

Consistency checks in the time series – Values of emissions

2 windows

You can double click in the Check Window to goto the Data Grid

Consistency checks in the time series – Values of Notation Keys

2 steps

Completeness checks

Completeness checks verify that all fields required have been filled in. According to the UNFCCC guidelines, in the places where no numerical information is available, a set of standard notation keys should be used in order to indicate the reason for not reporting a value.

• Completeness means that an inventory covers all sources and sinks, as well as all gases, included in the IPCC Guidelines as well as other existing relevant source/sink categories which are specific to individual Parties and, therefore, may not be included in the IPCC Guidelines.

Completeness checks – some are automatic

• Automatically– when end user moves between

categories in the category tree in case GHG emission data for the category has been changed. A simple indication for the completeness of a node is the traffic light associated to the node (see paragraph 3.2. Navigation Tree).

Completeness checks – some are automatic

• Verification that all fields required have been filled in– If there are empty fields, the program indicates where

and asks the user to provide a numerical value, a notation key or text. Thus, for example, all emissions has to be reported with a value or should be indicated why they are not reported using a notation key, e.g. “not occurring” (NO). At the same time some of the notation keys like “not estimated” (NE) and “included elsewhere” (IE) trigger further explanations and therefore textual entries are needed.

• Unlike the consistency check, the completeness check requires actions from the user, namely entering the omitted values or explanations.

What information is required?

• Mandatory– Missing mandatory entries check– Missing explanations for IE– Missing explanations for NE– Missing Methods/EF used at Summary

3 level• Optional

– Missing additional information

Completeness checks in a given year

2 windows

You can double click in the Check Window to goto the Data GridSeveral

steps

Recalculation

• The inventories of an entire time series should be estimated using the same methodologies, and the underlying activity data and emission factors should be obtained and used in a consistent manner

• When the methodology or manner, in which underlying activity data and emission factors are gathered, has changed, Parties should recalculate inventories for the base and subsequent years

Recalculation checks are always made on previous submission that has been confirmed by UNFCCC.

Recalculation

• Recalculations and the explanatory information including justification for recalculations should be reported both in NIR and in the relevant CRF tables.

• Recalculation explanations are required only for the emissions of the main GHG (CO2, CH4, N2O, PFCs, HFCs, SF6) at the level of sector/ subsector as defined in Table 8(a). The explanations are required at the same level in Table 8(b).

Recalculation due to changes between current and last submission

2 windows

White / yellow cells

Include / exclude comments

The recalculations …

Explaining the recalculations …

How much explanation is enough?

• How much explanatory information do you need to enter?

• Suggest setting threshold of % change before an explanation is entered

• FCCC to comment on this view … James!!!!

Where do these comments appear?

• Where do these comments appear in the Excel output?– Example Excel output– James Grabert to comment!

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