Reporting of emission inventories
The National Emission Reduction Commitments Directive (NEC Directive - Directive (EU) 2016/2284) requires Member States to report national emission inventories each year, accompanied by an informative inventory report. The European Environment Agency (EEA) makes the data available on the Eionet Central Data Repository website.
The EEA publishes a yearly briefing on the reporting status under the NEC Directive. The EEA also provides a national air pollutant emissions data viewer to show the emissions of air pollutants from 2015 to the latest available inventory.
Methodological support to inventories compilation
The reporting must be based on the latest version of the EMEP/EEA Guidebook.
Member States can also use the AgrEE tool for emissions from the agriculture sector.
The NEC Directive contains flexibility provisions that Member States can use under certain circumstances in the context of compliance checks. Copernicus Climate Change Service developed a tool to identify years when a Member State may have experienced an exceptionally cold winter or an exceptionally dry summer, for the purpose of checking eligibility for using the flexibility in Article 5(2) of the Directive.
For eligible Member States that wish to use the pollutant compensation flexibility referred to in Article 5(3) of the Directive, an Excel template has been developed that Member States can use to support their application.
Review of national emission inventories
Each year, the Commission, assisted by the European Environment Agency (EEA), reviews national emission inventory data.
The guidelines developed for the latest review are available here.
The expert review team that supports the Commission in reviewing national inventories has compiled examples of best practices in emissions inventories to help Member States improve their inventories, including by proposing solutions to recurring issues.