By Lucille Borlaza
Dr. James B. Simpas and Lucille Joanna S. Borlaza attended the the 10th Workshop on Greenhouse Gas Inventories in Asia (WGIA) in Hanoi, Vietnam last July 10-12, 2012. The workshop was convened by the Ministry of the Environment of Japan (MOEJ) and the National Institute of Environmental Studies (NIES), together with the Ministry of Natural Resources (MONRE) of Vietnam. This yearly workshop since 2003 has aimed at supporting Non Annex I (NAI) Parties of Asia to develop and improve their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventories.
Over 140 participants were present in this event. Most of the participants were government officials and researchers from 14 countries in Asia including Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Lao P.D.R., Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines. Experts from international organizations like UNFCCC, IPCC TFI TSU, USEPA, SEA GHG Project, USAID, DCCEE of Australia and JICA also joined the workshop.
NAI Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) were required to do their GHG Inventories as part of National Communications (NCs) to be periodically submitted to the Conference of Parties (COP). After both host countries (MOEJ and MONRE) presented their policy schemes to combat climate change in the opening session, India and Korea reported on their latest inventories in Session-I. NIES also reviewed the past WGIA activities and proposed its future plans. In Session-II, participants had a hands-on training using the new IPCC Inventory Software on Energy, IPPU and Waste Sectors. Afterwards, participants discussed about AFOLU-specific issues and exchange of information. For the final session, there were presentations by donors supporting capacity building