Insights into the EMEP emissions inventory dataset

Under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP), 51 northern hemisphere countries are obliged to regularly report their national emissions inventories for selected anthropogenic air pollutants to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The EMEP Centre on Emissions Inventories and Projections (CEIP) of the Convention is tasked with administering, archiving and reviewing these data and compiling the EMEP emissions dataset, a complete and gridded inventory for the area between 30 and 82 °N and 30 °W and 90°E.

The reported national emissions inventories and the EMEP emissions dataset are often used by the scientific community as input drivers of air pollution models or as priors for inverse estimation of emissions. However, interpreting model outputs, validation and uncertainties may be restricted by limited knowledge of the peculiarities of such reported data. The purpose of this conference contribution by CEIP is to provide atmospheric modellers with further insight into these reported emissions data. The presentation will introduce the Convention and discuss how complexities of this international agreement have led to diversified reporting requirements and heterogeneity in the frequency and quality of the reported inventories. Current issues with respect to emissions of particulate matter (e.g. reporting of condensable particulate matter and black carbon) will furthermore be discussed and the presentation will also provide perspectives on how the recently agreed long-term strategy for Convention may impact future emissions reporting over the next decade and beyond.