
Article 1 
This Regulation applies to the reports submitted by the Member States containing data required for the year 2021 onwards.
Article 2 
The Member States and the Commission shall use the global warming potentials listed in Annex I to this Regulation for the purpose of determining and reporting greenhouse gas inventories data pursuant to paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of Article 26 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999.
Article 3 
The Member States and the Commission shall determine greenhouse gas inventories referred to in paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of Article 26 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 in accordance with:

((a)) the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories;
((b)) the modalities, procedures and guidelines for the transparency framework for action and support referred to in Article 13 of the Paris Agreement set out in the Annex to Decision 18/CMA.1 of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (‘Decision 18/CMA.1’).
Article 4 

1. The Commission shall manage, maintain and seek to continuously improve the Union greenhouse gas inventory system based on the following quality assurance and quality control programme objectives:
(a) that the Union greenhouse gas inventory is complete by, where relevant, applying the procedure set out in Article 37(5) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999, in consultation with the Member State concerned;
(b) that the Union greenhouse gas inventory system provides a transparent aggregation of Member States’ greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks as well as overviews of methodological descriptions for Union key categories, and reflects in a transparent manner the contribution of Member States’ emissions by sources and removals by sinks to the Union greenhouse gas inventory;
(c) that the total of the Union’s greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks for a reporting year is equal to the sum of Member States’ greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks reported pursuant to paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of Article 26 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 for that same year;
(d) that the Union greenhouse gas inventory includes a consistent time series of emissions by sources and removals by sinks for all reported years.
2. The Commission and the Member States shall increase, where possible, the comparability of national greenhouse gas inventories by seeking synergy of methods, activity data, notation keys and the allocation of emissions by sources and removals by sinks by Member States, where appropriate.
3. The quality assurance and quality control programme objectives of the Union inventory shall complement the quality assurance and quality control programmes objectives implemented by the Member States.
4. Member States shall ensure the quality of activity data, emission factors and other parameters used for their national greenhouse gas inventory.
Article 5 

1. The Commission estimates for completing the inventory data submitted by a Member State as referred to in Article 37(5) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 shall be based on the following methodologies and data:
(a) where a Member State has submitted in the previous reporting year a consistent time series of estimates for the relevant source category and:
((i)) that Member State has submitted an approximated greenhouse gas inventory for the year X – 1 pursuant to Article 26(2) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 that includes the missing estimate, on the data from that approximated greenhouse gas inventory;
((ii)) that Member State has not submitted an approximated greenhouse gas inventory for the year X – 1 under Article 26(2) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999, but the Union has estimated approximated greenhouse gas emissions for the year X – 1 for that Member State in accordance with Article 26(2) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999, on the data from that Union approximated greenhouse gas inventory;
((iii)) the use of the data from the approximated greenhouse gas inventory of the Member State is not possible or may lead to a highly inaccurate estimation, for missing estimates in the energy sector, on the energy statistics data obtained in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
((iv)) the use of the data from the approximated greenhouse gas inventory is not possible or may lead to a highly inaccurate estimation, for missing estimates in non-energy sectors, on estimation methodologies consistent with the technical advice on gap filling in Section 2.2.3 of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (Vol. 1) using, where appropriate, European statistics;
(b) where an estimate of an emission by source or removal by sink for the relevant category was subject to technical corrections in accordance with Article 38(2)(d) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 in the latest review prior to the submission and the Member State concerned has not submitted a revised estimate, on the method used by the technical expert review team to calculate the technical correction;
(c) where a consistent time series of reported estimates for the relevant source category is not available, on estimation methodologies consistent with the technical advice on gap filling in Section 2.2.3 of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (Vol. 1).
2. The Commission shall prepare the estimates referred to in paragraph 1 by 31 March of the reporting year in consultation and close cooperation with the Member State concerned.
3. The Member State concerned shall use the estimates referred to in paragraph 1 for its submission of national inventories to the UNFCCC Secretariat pursuant to Article 26(4) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999.
Article 6 
The initial checks performed by the Commission pursuant to Article 37(4) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 may include:

((a)) an assessment whether all categories required under the modalities, procedures and guidelines for the transparency framework for action and support referred to in Article 13 of the Paris Agreement set out in the Annex to Decision 18/CMA.1 and all greenhouse gases referred to in Annex V of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 are reported by the Member State;
((b)) an assessment whether emissions by sources and removals by sinks data time series are consistent;
((c)) an assessment whether implied emission factors across Member States are comparable taking into account the IPCC default emission factors for different national circumstances;
((d)) an assessment of the use of ‘Not Estimated’ notation keys where IPCC Tier 1 methodologies exist and where the use of the notation key is not justified in accordance with point 32 of the Annex to Decision 18/CMA.1;
((e)) an analysis of recalculations performed for the greenhouse gas inventory submission, including whether the recalculations are based on methodological changes;
((f)) a comparison of the verified greenhouse gas emissions reported under the European Union’s emission trading system with the greenhouse gas emissions reported pursuant to Article 26(3) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999;
((g)) a comparison of the results of Eurostat’s reference approach with the Member States’ reference approach;
((h)) a comparison of the results of Eurostat’s sectoral approach with the Member States’ sectoral approach;
((i)) an assessment whether issues from earlier Union initial checks and reviews as well as recommendations from UNFCCC reviews have been implemented by the Member State;
((j)) an assessment of the accuracy of Member States’ emissions by sources and removals by sinks estimates in relation to Union key categories;
((k)) an assessment of the transparency and completeness of the methodological descriptions reported by Member States for the Union key categories.
((l)) an assessment of monitoring and reporting of emissions by sources and removals by sinks in the land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector pursuant to Part 3 of Annex V to Regulation (EU) 2018/1999, including the assignment of key categories, Tier methodology applied, and a comparison of reported land use and land use change activity data with information derived from the Union and Member State programmes and surveys.
Article 7 
Delegated Regulation (EU) No 666/2014 is repealed with effect from 1 January 2021, subject to the transitional provision laid down in Article 8 of this Regulation.
Article 8 
By way of derogation from Article 7 of this Regulation, Articles 6 and 7 of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 666/2014 shall continue to have effect for the reports containing data required for the years 2019 and 2020.
Article 9 
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
It shall apply from 1 January 2021.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.Done at Brussels, 8 May 2020.
For the Commission
The President
Ursula VON DER LEYEN
ANNEX

Acronym, common name or chemical name Global warming potential
Carbon dioxide (CO2) 1
Methane (CH4) 28
Nitrous oxide (N2O) 265
Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) 23 500
Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) 16 100
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs):
HFC-23 CHF3 12 400
HFC-32 CH2F2 677
HFC-41 CH3F 116
HFC-125 CHF2CF3 3 170
HFC-134 CHF2CHF2 1 120
HFC-134a CH2FCF3 1 300
HFC-143 CH2FCHF2 328
HFC-143a CH3CF3 4 800
HFC-152 CH2FCH2F 16
HFC-152a CH3CHF2 138
HFC-161 CH3CH2F 4
HFC-227ea CF3CHFCF3 3 350
HFC-236cb CF3CF2CH2F 1 210
HFC-236ea CF3CHFCHF2 1 330
HFC-236fa CF3CH2CF3 8 060
HFC-245fa CHF2CH2CF3 858
HFC-245ca CH2FCF2CHF2 716
HFC-365mfc CH3CF2CH2CF3 804
HFC-43-10mee CF3CHFCHFCF2CF3 or (C5H2F10) 1 650
Perfluorocarbons (PFCs):
PFC-14, Perfluoromethane, CF4 6 630
PFC-116, Perfluoroethane, C2F6 11 100
PFC-218, Perfluoropropane, C3F8 8 900
PFC-318, Perfluorocyclobutane, c-C4F8 9 540
Perfluorocyclopropane c-C3F6 9 200
PFC-3-1-10, Perfluorobutane, C4F10 9 200
PFC-4-1-12, Perfluoropentane, C5F12 8 550
PFC-5-1-14, Perfluorohexane, C6F14 7 910
PFC-9-1-18, C10F18 7 190