The Belgian GHG emission inventory is compiled based on three regional GHG inventories of Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels and approved by the National Climate Commission. The inventory is compiled on a yearly basis and submitted to the EU by January and March of each year and provides a detailed overview of sectoral territorial GHG emissions in Belgium from the year 1990 up to the year X-2.

Subsequently, by April (Belgium) and May (Europe) of each year, the same information is submitted to the UNFCCC (https://unfccc.int/ghg-inventories-annex-i-parties/2023: Belgian inventories available from 2003 onwards) and integrated in the UNFCCC Greenhouse Gas Inventory Data portal (https://di.unfccc.int/). Via a flexible query (https://di.unfccc.int/flex_annex1), a chosen subset of all national GHG inventories can be downloaded in a tabular structure that suits best the final end-use.

Belgian domestic (A.) and international (B.) transport emissions are reported separately within the category ‘1. Energy’ of the emission inventory:

A. Belgian domestic transport-related emissions fall within the subcategory ‘1.AA Fuel Combustion – Sectoral Approach’ -> ‘1.A.3 Transport’. [see excel/csv 240610_di-unfccc_1.A.3-transport.xlsx/csv]

This section of the EU and UNFCCC GHG inventory data is structured according to:

1) Party * Belgium, … 2) Year: * Base year, 1990 to year X-2 (yearly) 3) Category: subcategory ‘1.A.3 Transport’ of category ‘1. Energy’. * 1.A.3 Transport * 1.A.3.a Domestic Aviation * 1.A.3.b Road Transportation * 1.A.3.b.i Cars * 1.A.3.b.ii Light Duty Trucks * 1.A.3.b.iii Heavy Duty Trucks and Buses * 1.A.3.b.iv Motorcycles * 1.A.3.b.v Other * 1.A.3.c Railways * 1.A.3.d Domestic Navigation * 1.A.3.e Other Transportation * 1.A.3.e.i Pipeline Transport * 1.A.3.e.ii Other 4) Type of value: Gas \ Unit * Aggregate GHGs * CO₂ * CH₄ * N₂O * CO * NOₓ * SO₂ * NMVOC * No gas 5) Classification \ Unit * Total for category * Biomass * Gaseous Fuels * Liquid Fuels * Other Fossil Fuels * Solid Fuels * Aviation Gasoline * Jet Kerosene * Diesel Oil * Gasoline * Liquefied Petroleum Gases (LPG) * Other Liquid Fuels * Gas/Diesel Oil * Residual Fuel Oil 5) Net emissions/removals: territorial emission of GHG expressed in: * kt. This is the absolute weight of each type of GHG emitted. * kt CO2eq. This is the absolute weight of the different types of GHGs converted to a CO2-equivalent quantity according to Global Warming Potentials. In all UNFCCC Annex I Parties (which includes Belgium), the Global Warming Potentials of the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are used since the 2023 submission (see https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/transparency-and-reporting/greenhouse-gas-data/notes-on-ghg-data) 6) Fuel consumption: expressed in TJ 7) Implied emission factor: calculated emission factor (weight of GHG emitted per energy content of fuel) per type of gas and per type of fuel. Expressed in t/TJ for CO2 and kg/TJ for the other GHG gasses. 8) Method: indications on method used. * CS: Country Specific * M: model * T1: IPCC Tier 1 * T2: IPCC Tier 2 * T3: IPCC Tier 3 9) Emission factor information: * CR: CORINAIR * CS: Country Specific * D: IPCC default * M: model * OTH: Other

B. International transport emissions (international aviation and international maritime transport) in Belgium are reported as a memo item falling under the subcategory ‘Memo Items’ -> ‘International Bunkers’ -> ‘International Aviation’ and ‘International Navigation’. [see excel/csv 240610_di-unfccc_1-memo-aviation-navigation.xlsx/csv]

This section of the EU and UNFCCC GHG inventory data is structured according to: 1) Party * Belgium, … 2) Year: * Base year, 1990 to year X-2 (yearly) 3) Category: subcategories ‘Memo items’  ‘International Bunkers’ of category ‘1. Energy’: * International Aviation * International Navigation 4) Type of value: Gas \ Unit * Aggregate GHGs * CO₂ * CH₄ * N₂O * CO * NOₓ * SO₂ * NMVOC * No gas 5) Classification \ Unit * Total for category * Biomass * Gaseous Fuels * Other Fossil Fuels * Aviation Gasoline * Jet Kerosene * Gasoline * Other Liquid Fuels * Gas/Diesel Oil 5) Net emissions/removals: territorial emission of GHG expressed in: * kt. This is the absolute weight of each type of GHG emitted. * kt CO2eq. This is the absolute weight of the different types of GHGs converted to a CO2-equivalent quantity according to Global Warming Potentials. In all UNFCCC Annex I Parties (which includes Belgium), the Global Warming Potentials of the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are used since the 2023 submission (see https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/transparency-and-reporting/greenhouse-gas-data/notes-on-ghg-data) 6) Fuel consumption: expressed in TJ 7) Implied emission factor: calculated emission factor (weight of GHG emitted per energy content of fuel) per type of gas and per type of fuel. Expressed in t/TJ for CO2 and kg/TJ for the other GHG gasses.

A description of the underlying data, methodology and data structure of the Belgian GHG inventory can be found in the yearly National Inventory Report that is submitted together with the inventory (latest available version for the year 2021 [NIR_2023_15042023_final.pdf] : https://cdr.eionet.europa.eu/be/eu/mmr/art07_inventory/ghg_inventory/envzdt1oa/NIR_2023_15042023_final.pdf/manage_document (EU) or https://unfccc.int/documents/627808 (UNFCCC)).

Additionally, the reader is referred to UNFCCC guidelines for a broader description of the structure of national GHG inventories (https://unfccc.int/topics/mitigation/resources/registry-and-data/ghg-data-from-unfccc), in particular IPCC Guildines Volume 2 (https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html) chapter 3 – Mobile combustion (https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/pdf/2_Volume2/V2_3_Ch3_Mobile_Combustion.pdf).