Category: National governments, Emission inventories

GHG inventory and QA/QC assistance in South Africa

On the road towards establishing a sustainable GHG inventory, Aether assisted South Africa's Department of Environmental Affairs to establish a National System for regular GHG estimation, analysis and reporting.

On the road towards establishing a sustainable Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventory, South Africa wanted to make sure that they had a high quality national GHG inventory system. With this purpose, Aether has worked together with the Department of Environmental Affairs of the Republic of South Africa, as well as Gondwana and the North-West University. The team has provided hands-on support in the development of South Africa’s institutional arrangements, work plans, data systems, QA/QC systems and improvement plans.

The challenge

South Africa’s national circumstances determine the level required for their inventory compilation. Despite being a non-Annex I country to the UNFCCC, the country is committed to developing a high-quality inventory system.

The solution

During 2015 to 2017, Aether provided hands-on support in the development of South Africa’s institutional arrangements, work plans, data systems, QA/QC systems and improvement plans.  A key solution in meeting South Africa’s needs is the development of a national system portal. Launched in 2016, the online portal facilitates communication between both internal and external stakeholders, and ensures retention of institutional memory with thorough documentation.  The inventory has further been improved through the adoption of best practice compilation templates, including QA/QC checklists and Aether’s QA/QC tool ‘QA Analyst’.  To facilitate engagement and communication with the inventory team, as well as other stakeholders, the project incorporates multiple in-country visits and stakeholder engagement activities, as well as virtual training courses.

The result

The work will ensure that South Africa can develop and maintain a high-quality data collection, analysis and reporting system for GHG emission trends. Through this process, the system will meet the needs of its climate action policy-makers to track and develop effective policies.
Outputs will inform and engage stakeholders and the public. The system will also support transparent, high-quality reporting to the UNFCCC in support of Biennial Update Reports (BURs) and National Communications (NCs).

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Testimonial

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“A heartfelt thank you to all the Aether team for this very comprehensive review – this is certainly turning out to be one of the most beneficial capacity building projects I have ever been involved in.”

Saviour Vassallo, Senior Environment Protection Officer, Malta Resources Authority

“Aether delivered training workshops and generated learning materials for our SSN members, providing technical content in a manageable and comprehendible format. We particularly benefitted from their extensive knowledge and ability to interpret the needs of our members into the training materials.”

Jennifer Anderson, Sustainable Scotland Network

“The Aether team were a joy to work with and I would recommend the consultancy - the service provided throughout the process was exceptional. Where there were problems, they provided solutions. The team were working to very short time scales but were able to deliver a high quality piece of work within the specified time frame.”

Sefton Council - for the Merseyside Atmospheric Emissions Inventory

“The professional service provided by your company was of very high quality and completed within agreed timelines.”

Matthew Dudley, UNFCCC Secretariat

“Chris was excellent to work with and always very pro active in making suggestions, taking work forward and applying his considerable technical knowledge in effective ways.”

Robert Vaughan, Defra Air Quality Team

“Aether was a great asset in involving/engaging with Member States experts on highly technical subjects regarding GHG reporting. Very clear communication of issues and results.”

Andreas Pilzecker, DG CLIMA

“It has been a pleasure to work with Chris Dore and Richard Claxton from Aether: they did their job in a very professional and timely manner. The workshop was organized and carried out in a cooperative spirit; the information provided to the workshop participants was complete and clear.”

Alina Novikova, UN/ECE Secretariat

“Professional team and very collaborative communication. Effective result in terms of suggestions for improvement in the quality of the inventory and proposals on how to streamline specific topics.”

Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research

“Aether is a great partner for work in the area of European Air Emissions. The team was committed, reliable, well organised and had a deep technical understanding and motivated other partners with their good spirit.”

Umweltbundesamt: Environment Agency Austria

“It is always an absolute pleasure working with Aether. I always know what is expected of me. Their work ethic is of a very high standard and projects are always handled in a very professional manner. I have learnt many skills in terms of project management, quality control and workshop training styles from Aether and I hope to carry these principles forward in my own work. I look forward to collaborating with Aether more in the future.”

Luanne Stevens, Gondwana

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