As a Non-Annex 1 country to the UNFCCC, Albania has been developing an inventory of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted to or removed from the atmosphere since 1990 as part of its National Communications (NCs) on Climate Change and now as part of this report, Albania’s First Biennial Update Report. For the first time, Albania published a National Inventory Report (NIR) alongside this report that provides detailed information regarding the GHG inventory in this report.

This report includes a national GHG inventory for the years 2010-2016 and a revision of the inventory results for the year 2009 to adjust to the use of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines. The inventory covers the GHG emissions and removals estimates as divided into the 2006 IPCC Guidelines: Energy, IPPU, AFOLU and Waste. To facilitate aggregate reporting of the GHG values, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂ eq.), as indicated in the Decision 17/CP.8, the global warming potentials (GWPs) values provided in the IPCC Second Assessment Report (temporal horizon 100 years) are used. The inventory covers the following GHGs: CO₂, CH₄, N₂O, PFCs and HFCs and precursor and indirect emissions of CO, NO_X, NMVOC and SO₂.

The GHG inventory was coordinated by the Ministry of Tourism and Environment as the UNFCCC focal point and the central authority in Albania in charge for climate change policy. The preparation of the GHG inventory was project based, supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Six professionals were engaged to form the GHG inventory team (each of them responsible for one or more sectors including data collection). The inventory was prepared using the latest IPCC Inventory software version available at the time of the preparing the inventory (IPCC 2006 software - version 2.691).

Albania has submitted its National Inventory Report to the UNFCCC