The Toolkit for Building National GHG Inventory Systems, developed by EPA, is intended to help national inventory compilers build and advance a national GHG inventory system that suits their national context. It includes pre-defined instructional, editable templates for establishing, maintaining, and improving a national GHG inventory system and related supporting templates. Completed templates adapted to reflect national circumstances can be compiled into a single National GHG Inventory System Manual, which provides a comprehensive documentation of each critical component for managing the GHG inventory development process. The templates in the Toolkit are consistent with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “good practice,” the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, and the latest United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) transparency requirements. These resources have undergone several revisions since their initial development, including updates in 2022.
There are four types of resources in this toolkit: 1) National GHG inventory system templates and supporting templates (e.g., an example of a supporting template includes composing a memorandum of cooperation for data collection or scope of work to engage external support for inventory compilation); 2) Guides (e.g., references for understanding sector roles and responsibilities to inform position descriptions); 3) Key Category Analysis tool and tutorial series; and 4) Inventory Progress Indicator (IPI) tool.