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MOVING TOWARDS A CLIMATE NEUTRAL UN

ing commonly-travelled routes, or else using the aver- age emissions per flight calculated by the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator which was then applied to the number of flights with missing data. One way of over- coming such problems in the future would be to adapt the ERP system to collect the required travel data, with support from the ICAO secretariat if appropriate, so that estimated itineraries can be replaced with actual data where possible.

The emissions from air travel included in the inven- tory include all trips paid for by the organization, both those of staff members as well as for example confer- ence participants. The indicator “Air travel per staff member” will therefore be higher than the actual aver- age per staff member and should thus be understood as a general indicator for the emission intensity of the organization. A high value may reflect a large amount of participant travel.

Field offices The inclusion of field offices in the GHG inventory presents major challenges. Data on energy consump- tion and other relevant emissions sources were often difficult to obtain or not available, either because data are not being collected or because local infrastructure lacks emission control devices or consumption infor- mation. The need for additional staff training, the geo- graphical distance and the large number of field offices all increase the challenges.

Some organizations with a large number of country of- fices succeeded in obtaining good coverage of these offices in their first inventory. Others have prioritized headquarters and/or larger offices for which reliable

data were more readily available, and will expand the scope of their GHG inventory over time.

Comparability The UN system organizations have followed a com- mon methodology and minimum agreed boundary, as a result of which their data are broadly comparable. However, there are divergences between organizations on coverage of country or field offices, and so the ag- gregated UN system data do not reflect the full impact of operations. Furthermore, data collection systems for air travel and refrigerants in air-conditioners will need to be improved to harmonize to a high quality across organizations.

Data collection systems Data collection systems play one of the most important roles in preparing the GHG inventory. A critical lesson learned for many organizations was to integrate data requirements and the data collection process itself into the day-to-day operations of the organization, in order to ensure that data are readily available and are of high quality. The necessary procedures, roles and respon- sibilities need to be established, with empowerment from senior management.

Quality control The UN Climate Neutral Strategy recommends that the GHG inventories should undergo periodic indepen- dent verification. Plans are underway to carry out such verification of the methodologies developed by the UN for their GHG inventory, as well as efforts to ensure that a harmonized and coordinated approach for the verifi- cation of individual organizations’ inventories, includ- ing the provision of related training for UN system.

Next steps

A review will be undertaken of the experience in com- piling the 2008 inventory, including lessons learned for 2009. A priority area will be to simplify the process and facilitate data submission and emissions calcula- tions, which is planned using an online data submis- sion system.

Other areas of focus will be facilitating data collection from country offices, improving other areas of cover- age and enhancing data quality.

The experience in using the tools will also be re- viewed, and improvements made together with up- dates on emission factors. Better use will be made of the knowledge-sharing website to collect and dis- seminate information on local emission factors for energy generation, and other data.

Ongoing efforts will be needed to further automate data collection from the various ERP systems in use by the UN system.