6. Workshop and Meetings

6. WORKSHOPS & MEETINGS

6.1. Review of the Workshops Held over the Year

The ETC has organised two ETC/CORINAIR workshops for the experts from the National Reference Centres, the first on 28 March 1996 held at AEA Technology in Culham and the second on 17 October 1996 held at EEA Copenhagen. About 45 experts attended each of the workshops.

The first workshop aimed to :

• finalise the CORINAIR90 inventory ;

• keep national experts informed about the EEA work programme and related activities within the EU and UNECE;

• present the ETC work plan, explain the steps forward to an faster data collection system;

• train experts with the revised software and extended tools.

The second workshop aimed to :

• review the inventorying process and stimulate, where necessary, the development of national capacities;

• get feedback from MS, DGXI, UNECE/EMEP, IPCC/OECD;

• discuss the annual emissions reporting system and the way towards emissions and projections;

• meet experts for air emissions from PHARE countries;

• discuss the EEA/PHARE Topic-Link project.

The inventorying process and the state-of-play of national data deliverables have been reviewed and decisions made forward to the timetable made. National experts to be nominated for air emissions from PHARE (13) also attended the second meeting. They reported on progress with the revised CORINAIR software which they received in June 1996, exchanged experiences and discussed the new EEA/PHARE Topic-Link project to be established in 1997. Assistance to PHARE and other countries will be provided by the ETC which also is ready to expand its technical assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States (TACIS) in the near future.

6.2. First Workshop

The major part of the ETC meetings within SA1 consisted of was the first ETC/CORINAIR Workshop held at AEA Technology, Culham UK on 28 March 1996. The meeting was attended by national CORINAIR experts plus a number of observers who had stayed over from the preceding meeting of the UNECE/EMEP Task Force on Emission Inventories and/or wanted to take part in the IPCC/OECD/IEA workshop on the following two days. Mr McInnes welcomed the participants, including national CORINAIR experts from 29 countries (experts from Albania, Cyprus, Romania, Liechtenstein and Malta were not present); He stressed that CORINAIR should be seen as a common methodology to provide a basis for consistent reporting to various international legislation and conventions and that the ETC/AEM is continuing the CORINAIR process and producing the 1994 European Air Emissions Inventory for members of the EEA and other European countries (PHARE and TACIS) will be involved as much as possible. The aim of this meeting was to guide this development. Direct assistance was given to the national experts who are producing the inventories for their countries. These experts have been contacted by the ETC/AEM advisors prior to the meeting ensuring that the new CORINAIR software has been successfully installed, queries from the previous CORINAIR90 exercise verified/resolved and the top-down approach for the 1994 inventory was started.

At this first workshop, some of the EEA member countries’ experts were able to report on their initial 1994 emission estimates ( AT, DE, DK, FR, FI, GR, NL, UK, ... ) which gave confidence for the delivery of the final emission estimates on time end of 1996. No major doubts were raised by the representatives to keep the very strict deadlines agreed upon except on the provision of emission data for some new substances HM & POPs ( by FI and SE). Experts from the PHARE countries were not able to report on their national emissions estimates based on the CORINAIR94 system. As agreed with the EEA, the ETC/AE had not yet distributed the new software to these countries. It was decided by the EEA to postpone this to the official PHARE launch workshop held on 11/12 June 1996 at EEA (Copenhagen). Furthermore it was decided that extensive technical assistance would not yet be given by the ETC to PHARE countries, because that would be a task of the ETC/PHARE Topic Link, to be established end of 1996/beginning of 1997.

Participants took note of the ETC request that by 31 MayŽŽ96 preliminary estimates for the first 8 pollutants by 58 sub-categories should be submitted to CITEPA via the ETC Advisors who act as ‘check-points’. Experts were given the opportunity to use pre-loaded PC equipment at AEA so that any problem could be addressed and the assistance tailored specifically to each expert’s needs.

The approach applied to compile the European air emissions 1994 database was also discussed at this meeting. Experts in principle confirmed to be able to deliver their completed national databases by the end of Nov'96. A very demanding goal was that the European database of CORINAIR94 is to compiled and transmitted to the EEA by end of 1996. It provides the basis for the evaluation of national emission estimates and results in terms of quality, reliability and usefulness for environmental assessment which is needed to identify problem areas and trends in support of the EUŽŽs 5th Environmental Action Programme as well as to support the decision making process at European level.

During the first workshop the performance of the current CORINAIR software was also discussed and evaluated by the experts. The evaluation was based upon the experiences with the 1990 software and on a demonstration of the changes and improvements added to this software for the 1994 inventory. The ETC has highly welcomed the feedback from the users which has led to a number of questions raised by the experts and problems identified which have been reviewed by the ETC for inclusion in the future design of a new software.

6.3.  Second Workshop

The second workshop was held on 17 October 1996 at EEA. It was opened by the Director of the Agency, Mr Domingo Jiménez-Bertrán. He stressed the major objectives of the ETC/AE and the aim of this workshop as follows:

• speeding up of inventory compilation ;

• integration with ETC Air Quality to produce state of the environment with respect to air pollution

• linking the inventories more and more to economic projections and scenarios

A paper "Towards annual Reporting on European Air Emissions Inventories" was distributed and discussed at the meeting, containing the following elements :

• tasks, clients and products of ETC/AE;

• annual reporting process and deadlines (based on international obligations)

• redesign of model for inventories and projections;

• urban emission inventories;

• inventories and assessment of air pollution.

Requirements from potential clients and users were presented by DGXI (especially in relation to the PER under the IPPC Directive), UNECE/EMEP, OECD/IPCC.

All participants presented the state-of-play of the CORINAIR94 inventory and in general the EEA18 countries expressed that they expected to be able to meet the deadline (December 1996). However most Central and Eastern European Countries said that they would not be able to meet the deadline and would prefer to deliver 1995 emission estimates (in stead of 1994) during 1997.

Based upon the input from the participants and the group discussion during the workshop, conclusion and recommendations were made, as summarised below. These are supplemented by the need to comply with the aims of the EEA’s work programme.

General conclusions/recommendations

• a workshop attended by all National Reference Centres (45 experts) is very important to get feedback from the National Reference Centres and to facilitate the inventorying process;
  

• several good proposals have been made by participants (e.g. regarding the redesign of the emissions/projection model). They will be incorporated into the (revision of the) CROINAIR methodology and model;
  

• the EEA and ETC will develop the publication process further. An important aspect is the publication on Internet. The EEA and ETC have to follow sound quality procedures to ensure that these "electronic" data are identical to data published on paper. Both have to be updated regularly but only twice a year;
  

• all drafted reports foreseen for publication are always first sent to the National Focal Points to enable them but also the National Reference Centres to comment. The reports will be published (whether electronically or on paper) after the approval by NFPs. It is important that experts from designated NRCs have direct and regular contact to their NFPs.

Towards annual reporting

• the EEA will make use of the 5-year cycle as presented in the position paper. Every 5 years, a spatially detailed inventory (SNAP3, NUTS3) is required and for the intermediate years only national totals (SNAP3);
  

• emission data on SNAP2 is in both cases the minimum required detail, but data on SNAP3 level is considered desirable and the efforts should be directed to obtain these data;
  

• in thes 5-year cycle the 1995 inventory should be a spatially detailed inventory. To achieve results for 1995 as soon as possible, countries were asked to use their 1994 spatially detailed inventory as a basis to construct the 1995 inventory assisted by the ETC/AE.

Pollutants

• EEA will ask countries to report mainly those pollutants that are required under the relevant international conventions and programmes. If pollutants are not yet clearly defined the EEA can ask to start the inventory based on a preliminary list of pollutants;
  

• the need for information on emissions of "new" pollutants such as fine particles (PM10) and benzene may arise from the EEA’s work programme, e.g. because of requests from the Commission. The EEA has to consider incorporating those specifically requested pollutants in the near future. In collaboration with other bodies, the ETC/AE will provide guidelines and assistance to help countries to prepare comparable information at European level.

Time schedule

The following time schedule explains the distinction between data delivery by the National Reference Centres to the ETC and the publication of these data by the EEA.

6.4.  Main Meetings Attended by ETC Members

Members of the ETC/AE have participated actively in several meetings. The regular meetings where the Agency discusses with NFPs and ETCs (within the EIONET) the work programme and the collaboration are highly appreciated by the ETC Project Leader. At international level the ETC/AE participated in IPCC working groups and the IPCC-OECD Liaison Group (IOLG) to harmonise the CORINAIR methodology and the IPCC reporting requirements.

Main meetings held over the year 1996 are listed below.