Review process

The technical review of national inventories checks and assesses Parties'  data submissions with a view to improving the quality of emission data and associated information reported to the Convention.  The review of data reported under the Air Convention is harmonised  with those reported under the revised  NEC Directive (2016/2284/EU).  The technical review  aims at inventory improvements by checking  transparency, consistency, comparability, completness and accuracy of submitted data. The review  is carried out in three stages in line with the documentUpdated methods and procedures for technical review of emission inventories  (Decision 2018/1).

• Stage 1 (S1): An initial check of submissions for timeliness, completeness and formats. Results are published before 15 March and updated by the end of March of each year.
• Stage 2 (S2): A synthesis and assessment of all national submissions with respect to consistency , comparability, KCA, trends and IEFs of data with recommendations for data quality improvement. Results are published before 15 March and updated by the end of March of each year.
• Stage 3 (S3): In-depth reviews of selected inventories, by pollutant, country or sector, as in the workplan approved by the EMEP Steering Body. Up to ten countries are checked annually by two review teams.  

The S1 and S2  review  are perfomed by CEIP.  The findings per country are published along with information on the status of reporting.  A summary of annual S1 and S2 review findings is published annually in the Inventory Review reports along with information on gridded data and LPS.  

The annual in-depth review (S3)  of emission inventories is coordinated by CEIP and perfomed by two expert review teams (ERTs).  Reviewers are selected from the EMEP roster of inventory experts nominated by the Parties. The review is performed using the password protected  common workspace .  ERT findings of the in-depth reviews (S3) are published in the form of country review reports before the annual EMEP EB meetings. 

All Parties are invited to check the findings of the review process during all three stages, provide feedback to CEIP and if necessary resubmit corrected data to CEIP/CDR.  At each stage, national experts have the opportunity to clarify issues or provide additional information. 

Roster of review experts: The EMEP/CEIP roster lists 100 emission inventory experts nominated by 31 UNECE Parties (from 49 eligible). Parties are invited to nominate experts by sending the nomination form to EMEP/CEIP.

The figure below indicates particpation of experts in annual in-depth review of inventories and of adjustment applications per country since 2008. 

_{Note: if there is no numerical label it means that one reviewer participated in the respective review.}