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Technical assistance for support to mechanism for monitoring Turkey's greenhouse gas emissions

EuropeAid/134454/D/SER/TR

Legal, Technical and Institutional Analysis Report

Second version

December 2015

This project is co-financed by the European Union and the Republic of TurkeyBu proje Avrupa Birliği ve Türkiye Cumhuriyeti tarafından finanse edilmektedir

Technical Assistance for Support to Mechanism for Monitoring Turkey's Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Project co‐funded by the European Union & the Republic of Turkey

LEGAL, TECHNICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS REPORT, DECEMBER 2015 I

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROJECT SYNOPSIS ....................................................................................................................................... VI

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................. 1

1. THE INTERNATIONAL AND EU REGIME ON NATIONAL INVENTORY ARRANGEMENTS, NATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS, AND BIENNIAL REPORTS ............................................................................................... 2

1.1. The relevant applicable International Legislative Framework: main requirements according to the UNFCCC and related COP Decisions ............................................................................................................... 2

1.1.1. Guidelines for establishing a National System for GHG estimation and for Reporting Annual National Inventories for Annex I Parties: main requirements according to CMP Decision 19/CMP.1 and COP Decisions 20/CP.7, 18/CP.8 and 14/CP.11 as revised by COP Decision 24/CP.19 .............................................. 2 1.1.2. Reporting Guidelines on National Communications for Annex I Parties: main requirements according to COP Decision 4/CP.5 ...................................................................................................................... 5 1.1.3 Guidelines on Biennial Reports for Annex I Parties: main requirements according to COP Decisions 1/CP.16 and 2/CP.17 ........................................................................................................................................... 5

1.2. The relevant applicable EU Legislative Framework under Regulation 525/2013/EU (MRR) .................... 6 1.2.1. Introductory remarks on EU MRR purpose, subject matter and scope ............................................... 6 1.2.2. The EU requirements for NI systems under Regulation 525/2013/EU (MRR) and Delegated Regulations 666/2014/EU and 749/2014/EU ..................................................................................................... 7 1.2.3. The EU requirements for NCs and BRs under Regulation 525/2013/EU ............................................. 9

2. DESCRIPTION OF CURRENT LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR NIS, NCS AND BRS IN TURKEY ............................ 11

2.1 Introductory remarks on Turkey’s status under UNFCCC, KP and within the EU Accession Process ....... 11

2.2 Current National Inventory Arrangements in Turkey: legislative and institutional state of art ............. 12 2.2.1. General framework ................................................................................................................................. 12 2.2.2. Focus on the CCAMCB: regulatory framework, structure and competences ......................................... 12 2.2.3. Focus on NI preparation and archiving ................................................................................................... 14 2.2.4. Focus on the QA/QC Plan ....................................................................................................................... 17 2.2.5. National competent Authorities and data availability according to the MRR: brief overview on Turkish current MRV system ......................................................................................................................................... 19

2.3. Overview on current Institutional system for NCs and BRs .................................................................. 19

3. LEGAL, TECHNICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ASSESSMENT ........................................................................ 20

3.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 20

3.2. LTI gap analysis: relevant issues for efficient transposition and implementation of MRR ..................... 21 3.2.1. LTI gap analysis: focus on legal and Institutional conditionalities for a meaningful alignment to MRR 23

3.3. Overall assessment ............................................................................................................................ 25

3.4. SWOT Analysis ................................................................................................................................... 27

4. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .......................................................................................... 30

4.1. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................ 30

4.2. The way ahead: final suggested recommendations ............................................................................. 31

LIST OF DOCUMENTS AND LEGISLATIVE SOURCES ........................................................................................ 33



LEGAL, TECHNICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS REPORT, DECEMBER 2015 II

Project Title: Technical Assistance for Support to Mechanism for Monitoring Turkey's Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Project Ref. Number: EuropeAid/134454/D/SER/TR

Report Title: Legal, Technical and Institutional Analysis Report

Issue Number 1

Version 1 2 3 4

Date 25 December 2015 14 January 2016

Prepared By Alessandra Barreca Alessandra Barreca

Checked By

Domenico Gaudioso, Michael Gillenwater,

Christian Melis, Gamze Çelikyılmaz‐Aydemir

Christian Melis, Riccardo De Lauretis



LEGAL, TECHNICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS REPORT, DECEMBER 2015 III

Report Coverage page

Project Title: Technical Assistance for Support to Mechanism for Monitoring Turkey's Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Project Ref. Number: EuropeAid/134454/D/SER/TR

Contract no: TR2011/0327.21.02‐01/001

Country: Turkey

Name P.A.N.G.E.A. Società Cooperativa Consortile

Address Via Enrico Bindi 14 – 51100 Pistoia, Italy

Telephone +39 (0)573 365967

Fax +39 (0)573 34714

Ε Mail [email protected]

Contact Person Andrea Porta

Date of Report: 25 December 2015

Authors of Report: Ms. Alessandra Barreca

The content of this Report is the sole responsibility of the Consultant and can in no way be taken to reflect the

views of the European Union



LEGAL, TECHNICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS REPORT, DECEMBER 2015 IV

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AD Activity Data

BR Biennial Report

CBA Cost ‐ Benefit Analyses

CBCC Coordination Board on Climate Change

CCAE Coordination Council On Air Emissions

CCAMB Climate Change and Air Management Board

CCCC Climate Change Coordination Council;

CH4 Methane

CLRTAP Convention on Long‐Range Transboundary Air Pollution

CMP Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol

CO2 Carbon Dioxide

COP Conference of Parties

CRF Common Reporting Format

EBRD European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

EEA European Environmental Agency

EF Emission Factor

EFDB Emission Factors Database

EMEP European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme

EMEP/EEA Air pollutant Emissions Inventory Guidebook (formerly also known as EMEP CORINAIR)

ERT Expert Review Team

ESMAP Energy Sector Management Assistance Program

ETS Emissions Trading System

EU European Union

GDP Gross Domestic Product

GEF Global Environmental Facility

GHG Greenhouse gas

GIZ German Federal Enterprise for International Cooperation

GWP Global Warming Potential

HFCs Hydrofluorocarbons

IETA International Emissions Trading Association

INDC Intended National Determined Contribution

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IPPU Industrial Processes and Solvent and other Product Use

ISPRA Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale

KE Key Expert

KISAD Limestone Industry Association

KP Kyoto Protocol

LTI Legal, Technical and Institutional analysis

LULUCF Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry

MCT Ministry of Customs and Trade

MENR Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources

MMD Monitoring Mechanism Decision (280/2004/EC)

MRR Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 on a mechanism for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and for reporting other information at national and Union level relevant to climate change and repealing Decision No 280/2004/EC

MoEU Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation

MoFAL Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock

MoFWA Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs

MoSIT Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology

MRV Monitoring, Reporting and Verification



LEGAL, TECHNICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS REPORT, DECEMBER 2015 V

MTMAC Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communication

N2O Nitrous Oxide

NAMA Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions

NC National Communications

NEC National Emissions Ceiling

NI National Inventory

NIR National Inventory Report

NKE Non‐Key Expert

PaMs Policies and Measures

PFCs Perfluorocarbons

PMR Partnership for Market Readiness

PRTR (European Union) Pollutant Release And Transfer Register

PSC Project Steering Committee

QA/QC Quality Assurance / Quality Control

SBI Subsidiary Body for Implementation to the UNFCCC

SBSTA Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technical Advice to the UNFCCC

SF6 Sulphur Hexafluoride

SPO Senior Programme Officer

SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

TANA Training and Assistance Need Analysis

TASK‐GHG Technical Assistance for Support to Mechanism for Monitoring Turkey's Greenhouse Gas Emissions

TAT Technical Assistance Team

TCMB Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association

ToR Terms of Reference

TUBITAK Scientific and Technological Research Council Of Turkey

TurkStat Turkish Statistical Institute

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

WGs Working Groups



LEGAL, TECHNICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS REPORT, DECEMBER 2015 VI

PROJECT SYNOPSIS

Project Title Technical Assistance for Support to Mechanism for Monitoring Turkey's Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Project Ref. Number

EuropeAid/134454/D/SER/TR

Country Turkey

Beneficiary organisation:

Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation

Overall objective

To support Turkey in its efforts to contribute efficiently and effectively, together with the EU,

to the UNFCCC objective to achieve the stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the

atmosphere at a level which prevents dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate

system.

Planned Outcomes

1. Institutional, legal and procedural arrangements in place and linked to the planning, preparation and management of the inventory.

2. Improvement of the quality of the National Inventory Reports, with a focus on improved estimations and reporting following UNFCCC and IPCC guidelines.

3. Improvement of the data quality and technical capacity for preparing elements of the National Communications and biennial update report.

Technical Assistance Team

Technical Assistance Team is composed by:

Team Leader/Climate Change Expert, Mr. Christian Melis

Key Expert 2 – Senior Legal Expert, Ms. Alessandra Barreca

Key Expert 3 – Senior Expert on GHG Inventory Work, Mr. Michael Gillenwater

Key Expert 4 – Senior Expert on National Communications, Mr. Stelios Pesmajoglou

Non Key Experts

Project commencement date

25 December 2014

Project duration

28 months – ending date 25 April 2017



LEGAL, TECHNICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS REPORT, DECEMBER 2015 Page 1 of 34

Introduction

This Report represents the first deliverable of Component 1 of the project Technical Assistance for Support to Mechanism for Monitoring Turkey's Greenhouse Gas Emissions. More in detail, Component 1 Assessment and Improvement of the Legal and Institutional Situation and Identification of the Steps Needed aims at contributing to the enhancement of the existing institutional arrangements to assist Turkey in meeting its international GHG emissions reporting commitments, consistently with Regulation 525/2013/EU (MRR) requirements. In this framework, the Report represents the outcome of Activity 1.1 and provides a Legal, Technical, and Institutional (LTI) analysis of the current system, with the purpose of identifying its gaps and needs and, consequently, spelling out the recommendations for a full, effective transposition and implementation of MRR.

The Report is structured into 4 Chapters and is intended to pave the way for the development of further activities envisaged under Component 1.

Chapter 1 firstly provides a legal analysis of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Kyoto Protocol (KP) and related Conference of the Parties (COP) Decisions requirements regarding National Inventory (NI) systems and Parties’ duties under the International regime. National Communications (NCs) and Biennial Reports (BRs) main requirements are also outlined. The choice to give a prior description of the international legislative climate change regime stems from the strict link between International and EU Acquis. Indeed, considering that the EU ratified both the UNFCCC and KP, the MRR is based on the Convention, the KP and the relevant COP Decisions and implements the monitoring, information and reporting duties at EU and Member States level. Thus, after the International regime identification and analysis, Chapter 1 shifts to the analysis of EU MRR principles, rules and purpose. Here, the information and reporting duties of Member States are described and analysed with regard to NI Planning‐Preparation and Management stages and the NCs and BRs activities required are also discussed. The analysis also encompasses the main MRR implementing acts (Delegated Regulations 666/2014/EU and 749/2014/EU) adopted by the EU.

Chapter 2 focuses on the description and analysis of the current Turkish NI arrangements as well as NCs and BRs system. The national current state of art is presented with particular regard to the legal and Institutional issues and focusing on the current QA/QC system. In such a context, the current regulatory framework for NI and NC is identified, with particular regard to national entities responsible for NI preparation and management and their respective responsibilities and competences. Some preliminary hints of gap assessment are briefly introduced in this Chapter alongside the description of the current national framework.

Chapter 3 deals with the LTI assessment. Taking into consideration the findings of Chapter 1 and 2, it compares the Turkish NI and NC system with the UNFCCC and EU models and requirements with the aim to identify the issues and conditionalities hindering the full transposition and implementation of MRR. More specifically, the LTI analysis makes a preliminary identification of the legal and institutional conditionalities that shall be addressed as a matter of priority to ensure the approximation to MRR. Consequently, a SWOT analysis is carried out to strategically approach the next steps foreseen to enhance the system’s strengths and overcome its weaknesses. The gap assessment and SWOT analysis provide a bridge to the conclusions by “shaning light” on the measures needed to further progress in filling the gaps and improving the compliance with the EU requirements.

In fact, based on the findings of the gap and SWOT analysis, Chapter 4 develops the conclusive remarks and recommends next steps to promote a full and effective alignment to MRR. To this end, it devises the recommended legal and institutional measures to be introduced in the Planning‐Preparation and Management phases, as well as the ones needed for development of NCs, providing the basis for further elaboration of options and action plans to be performed in the forthcoming stages of Component 1.




1. The International and EU regime on National Inventory Arrangements, National Communications, and Biennial Reports

1.1. The relevant applicable International Legislative Framework: main requirements according to the UNFCCC and related COP Decisions

Notably, Turkey holds a peculiar status under the UNFCCC and KP as a result of COP Decisions 26/CP.7 and 1/CP.16 recognizing its special national circumstances. As a consequence, the Country is currently listed in Annex I to the UNFCCC but not in its Annex II and, despite its ratification of the KP, is not listed in its Annex B.1

Focusing on information and communication commitments, Turkey is subject to articles 4 and 12 of the UNFCCC. More in detail, according to article 4.1‐2 of the UNFCCC it shall, inter alia, fulfil the following main requirements:2

Regularly develop, publish and update a NI on anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks using comparable methodologies approved and prescribed under the UNFCCC;

Formulate, implement, publish and update national programmes on mitigation measures; and

Adopt national policies and measures aiming at climate change mitigation.

While, according to article 12.1‐6 of the UNFCCC it shall communicate to the Secretariat, inter alia, the following main information through its periodic NCs:

A NI;

A description of the steps, policies and measures adopted, envisaged and/or implemented to achieve the UNFCCC goals; and

Any further information deemed relevant to the achievement of the UNFCCC objective.

Besides these obligations, article 5 of the KP, crucially further requires Turkey, as each Annex I Parties to:

Establish a national system for estimating GHG emissions by sources and removals by sinks, according to Guidelines and using methodologies agreed by the CMP.

This primary framework is furthered by: CMP Decision 19/CMP.1 and COP Decisions 20/CP.7 on National Systems for GHG estimation; COP Decisions 18/CP.8 and 14/CP.11 as revised by COP Decision 24/CP.19 on Reporting Guidelines on NIs for Annex I Parties; COP Decision 4/CP.5 on Reporting Guidelines on NCs for Annex I Parties; and COP Decisions 1/CP.16 and 2/CP.17 on Reporting Guidelines on BRs for Annex I Parties,3each of which is analysed separately and more in detail in the following paragraphs.

Finally, fundamental technical guidance for NI development is provided by the IPCC by means of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories and supplements4 developed by the IPCC and adopted by COP. They provide the best available, peer‐reviewed parameters and methods to ensure accuracy, transparency, completeness, comparability and consistency (TACCC‐quality objectives) of NIs.

Overall, the UNFCCC legislative framework cited above identifies the necessary features of the National Inventory Arrangements and provides the primary rules Turkey, as each Annex I Party, is called to implement for developing its NIs, NCs and BRs.

1.1.1. Guidelines for establishing a National System for GHG estimation and for Reporting Annual National Inventories for Annex I Parties: main requirements according to CMP Decision 19/CMP.1 and COP Decisions 20/CP.7, 18/CP.8 and 14/CP.11 as revised by COP Decision 24/CP.19

The Guidelines for setting up the National System for the estimation of anthropogenic GHG emissions by sources and removals by sinks under Article 5, paragraph 1, of the Kyoto Protocol have been firstly provided by CMP Decision 19/CMP.1.

1 For further details on Turkey’s position under the UNFCCC and KP see infra Chapter 2. 2 The following list is not thorough but, according to this Report’s scope and purpose, it focuses on the most relevant general requirements set by the UNFCCC and KP with regard to development of NCs and NIs and related information duties. 3 Available at http://unfccc.int/documentation/decisions/items/3597.php4These are: the Good Practice Guidance for LULUCF and the Good Practice Guidance and Uncertainty Management in National Greenhouse Gas Inventories , together with the 2006 Guidelines, all available at http://www.ipcc‐nggip.iges.or.jp/public/index.html




These shall be analysed with the Reporting Guidelines for Annex I Parties’ Annual NIs adopted by COP Decisions 18/CP.8 and 14/CP.11 recently revised by COP Decision 24/CP.19.5

Together, they provide the principles, definitions, purpose, main requirements and Annex I Parties duties regarding the National System to estimate and annually report their GHG emissions and removals by sinks.

According to the Guidelines, as a first step, the National Inventory Arrangements (i.e.: the National System) shall be established. These shall include all the institutional, legal and procedural arrangements for GHG emissions by sources and removals by sinks estimation, reporting and archiving.

Table 1 below outlines the main requirements for NI arrangements Annex I Parties shall satisfy in terms of its design and implementation. Table 1: Annex I duties related to NI Arrangements design, operation and implementation according to COP Decision 24/CP.19 paragraphs 21‐226

NATIONAL

INVENTORY

ARRANGEMENTS

DESIGN &

IMPLEMENTATION

REQUIREMENTS

a) Ensure transparency, consistency, comparability, completeness and accuracy (TACCC) of NI7

b) Ensure quality of NI throughout the planning, preparation and management activities

c) Establish the institutional, legal and procedural arrangements between Government Agencies and other Entities involved

d) Ensure sufficient capacities and technical expertise to develop the NI in a timely manner

e) Designate a single entity with the overall responsibility for the NI

f) Prepare a timely annual NI and report consistently with COP relevant Decisions

g) Undertake the tasks related to planning, preparation and management of the NI

h) Ensure NI data gain official approval from the Government

5 The revision brought by COP Decision 24/CP.19 left unchanged many of the requirements and principles previously in force but updated the Guidelines by incorporating the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National GHG Inventories revising the 1996 ones. Parties shall use the revised IPCC Guidelines for their NIs from 2015 onwards. 6 Source: Author’s own elaboration. 7 These are the renowned quality objectives of NI, also referred to using their acronym “TACCC”, whose definitions provided in Decision 24/CP.19 paragraph 4.(a)‐(e) are reported here: “(a) Transparency means that the data sources, assumptions and methodologies used for an inventory should be clearly explained, in order to facilitate the replication and assessment of the inventory by users of the reported information. The transparency of inventories is fundamental to the success of the process for the communication and consideration of the information. The use of the common reporting format (CRF) tables and the preparation of a structured national inventory report (NIR) contribute to the transparency of the information and facilitate national and international reviews; (b) Consistency means that an annual GHG inventory should be internally consistent for all reported years in all its elements across sectors, categories and gases. An inventory is consistent if the same methodologies are used for the base and all subsequent years and if consistent data sets are used to estimate emissions or removals from sources or sinks. (…); (c) Comparability means that estimates of emissions and removals reported by Annex I Parties in their inventories should be comparable among Annex I Parties. For that purpose, Annex I Parties should use the methodologies and formats agreed by the COP for making estimations and reporting their inventories. (…); (d) Completeness means that an annual GHG inventory covers at least all sources and sinks, as well as all gases, for which methodologies are provided in the 2006 IPCC Guidelines or for which supplementary methodologies have been agreed by the COP. Completeness also means the full geographical coverage of the sources and sinks of an Annex I Party; (e) Accuracy means that emission and removal estimates should be accurate in the sense that they are systematically neither over nor under true emissions or removals, as far as can be judged, and that uncertainties are reduced as far as practicable. Appropriate methodologies should be used, in accordance with the 2006 IPCC Guidelines, to promote accuracy in inventories”.




Paragraphs 23‐27 of COP Decision 24/CP.19 envisage a series of mandatory activities Annex I Parties shall implement for NI development. These are distributed among the PLANNING, PREPARATION and MANAGEMENT stages.

Table 2: NI Planning, Preparation and Management according to COP Decision 24/CP.19 paragraphs 23‐278

NATIONAL INVENTORY

PLANNING

a) Define the institutional, legal and procedural arrangements for NI development

b) Define and allocate specific roles and responsibilities in the NI development process, including cooperation between Institutions and Entities involved

c) Elaborate a QA/QC plan

d) Establish the NI official approval process(including recalculations prior to submission and responding to issues raised within the review)

e) Establish NI improvement process

NATIONAL INVENTORY

PREPARATION

a) Prepare estimates

b) Collect ADs, EFs and information necessary for support the estimation methods

c) Make quantitative estimates of uncertainty for each category and for the inventory as a whole

d) Prepare recalculations

e) Compile NIR and CRF tables

f) Implement general and (key category) specific QC plan procedures

g) Implement the QA plan

h) Provide for a more extensive review for key categories

i) Re‐evaluate the inventory planning process consistently with the QA and extensive review outcomes

NATIONAL INVENTORY

MANAGEMENT

a) Archive all relevant information for the entire time series (including documentation on EFs and ADs; QA/QC procedures, reviews and planned improvements)

b) Provide the review teams with access to archived information

c) Timely respond to clarification requests from the review teams

Paragraphs 9‐19 of COP Decision 24/CP.19 cover the methodology issue, prescribing the use of the 2006 IPCC NI Guidelines from 2015 for GHG emissions estimations and throughout the inventory development process.

Finally, with regard to reporting issues, paragraphs 28‐47 spell out the general guidance rules to ensure completeness, uncertainty analysis and recalculations as well as QA/QC plan implementation. Paragraphs 48‐58

8 Source: Author’s own elaboration.




specify that the NI shall consist of the NIR and the CRF tables, whose compulsory structure and contents are furthered in the outline of Appendix I to the Decision.

1.1.2. Reporting Guidelines on National Communications for Annex I Parties: main requirements according to COP Decision 4/CP.5

The effectiveness of the Annex I Parties’ NI arrangements also affects their capacities to respond to the UNFCCC requirements for NCs. In fact, the quality and compliance to international standards of NCs also depend on national capacities to produce a transparent, accurate, complete, consistent and comparable NI (whose information shall be included in NCs), develop reliable projections on emission trends and devise feasible, effective mitigation policies and measures (all elaborated taking into account the NI outcomes, among other issues).

COP Decision 4/CP.5 provides the guidelines to develop and report NCs for Annex I Parties, which shall be submitted with the purpose to enable a thorough review of their progresses in meeting the UNFCCC goals and commitments.9

The Guidelines spell out the prescribed structure and mandatory elements to be included in NCs and its Annex I provides a mandatory format to be followed.

Among the several sections NCs shall consist of, the following ones are of particular interest for the purpose of this Report:

The section on GHG inventory information, including information on National Systems;

The section on the international/national/regional/local policies and measures planned/adopted/implemented to achieve the UNFCCC mitigation goal as well as their individual effects on GHG emissions and removals;

The section on projections and estimated/expected total aggregate effects of policies and measures on GHG emissions. Here, Parties shall report at least a “with measure” projection and may report “without measures” and “with additional measures” projections as well.10

1.1.3 Guidelines on Biennial Reports for Annex I Parties: main requirements according to COP Decisions 1/CP.16 and 2/CP.17

COP Decision 1/CP.16 paragraph 40 introduced the obligation for Annex I Parties to submit “biennial reports on their progress in achieving emission reductions, including information on mitigation actions to achieve their quantified economy‐wide emission targets and emission reductions achieved, projected emissions and financial, technology and capacity‐building support to developing country Parties”. Such provision applies to Turkey mutatis mutandis, taking into account its special status (not included in Annex II UNFCCC, not included in Annex B KP, no quantitative emissions reduction commitments).

Based on this Decision, COP Decision 2/CP.17 adopted the Guidelines for BRs. Similarly to the Guidelines for NIs and NCs, its Annex I provides the mandatory format and elements for BRs.

The following mandatory elements, among the others, are particularly significant for the purpose of this Report analysis, provided that they show the link between an effective NI arrangements system in place and the Country’s capabilities to correctly fulfil all the reporting duties under the UNFCCC:

Information on GHG emissions and trends and Party’s national inventory arrangements (according to the NI);

Mitigation policies and measures (PaMs) and their effects;

Projections (according to the Guidelines on NCs).

9 Please note that the Guidelines for Annex I Parties NCs are currently under revision since June 2014, though not finalised yet at the time of writing. 10 Paragraph 29 COP Decision 4/CP.5 specifies: “A “with measure” projection shall encompass currently implemented policies and measures. If

provided, a “with additional measures” projection also encompasses planned policies and measure. If provided, a “without measures” projection excludes all policies and measures implemented, adopted or planned after the year chosen as the starting point for this projection.”




1.2. The relevant applicable EU Legislative Framework under Regulation 525/2013/EU (MRR)

1.2.1. Introductory remarks on EU MRR purpose, subject matter and scope

Being Parties to the UNFCCC and the KP, the EU and its Member States are individually and jointly responsible for fulfilling their obligations thereunder. Regulation 525/2013/EU (MRR hereinafter) establishes an EU monitoring and reporting mechanism for GHG emissions and removals by sinks, implementing UNFCCC articles 4 and 12, KP article 5.1 and related COP Decisions cited in the paragraphs above.11

It regulates monitoring and reporting through NIs, NCs and BRs, providing the relevant principles and rules for the EU and its Member States and setting their relevant duties consistently with COP Decisions: 1/CP.15, 1/CP.16, 14/CP.11 as revised by 24/CP.19 and COP Decisions 4/CP.5 and 2/CP.17.

Before analysing the single MRR requirements for NIs, NCs and BRs respectively, some preliminary remarks introducing its purpose, subject matter and scope are provided below.

Firstly, the rationale of the MRR is to update, streamline and strengthen the EU monitoring and reporting mechanism previously in force, according to the most recent applicable COP Decisions on enhanced mitigation, monitoring and financial assistance requirements, as well as coherently with the GHG emissions reductions goals of the EU Climate and Energy Package.12To this end, the MRR endorses the following legal and technical elements:13

Decision 1/CP.16 pledge for Annex I Parties to adopt low‐carbon development strategies and enhance reporting on financial support to developing Countries;

The IPCC revisions of GWPs, methodologies and guidelines for NIs;

The Decision 406/2009/EU enhanced annual review and monitoring cycle of non ETS GHG emissions and removals;14

Transparency issues on the use of revenues from auctions of allowances under the EU ETS Directive 2009/29.

As a consequence, its purpose is to improve the EU monitoring and reporting system in order to:

Ensure the timeliness, transparency, accuracy, completeness, consistency and comparability of reporting by the EU and its Member States’ to the UNFCCC Secretariat;

Implement the most recent scientific and legislative developments adopted under the UNFCCC and EU umbrella;

Facilitate the assessment of the EU and its Member States progresses towards and compliance with international monitoring and reporting commitments;

Enhance consistency of reporting under MRR with reporting duties under other EU legal instruments addressing air pollutants (NEC Directive and Decision 406/2009/EU on Effort Sharing, for instance);

Provide the legal basis for the development of new EU climate change mitigation and adaptation instruments and for future reporting requirements and guidelines pursuant to EU legislation or international agreements and decisions.

The MRR subject matter is establishing a mechanism for:

Reporting and verifying information relating to commitments of the EU and its Member States pursuant to the UNFCCC, KP and decisions taken thereunder;

Monitoring, reporting, reviewing and verifying GHG emissions and other information pursuant to article 6 Decision 406/2009/EU;15

11 EU Regulation 525/2013 entered into force on 08/07/2013 and, as an effect, repealed Decision 280/2004/EC concerning a mechanism for

monitoring Community GHG emissions and for implementing the KP. 12 To this respect, see EU Decision 406/2009 (Effort Sharing Decision) covering EU Member States GHG mitigation commitments from non‐ETS

sectors in the period 2013‐2020 and EU Directive 2009/29 concerning the improvement and extension of the EU ETS. 13 Please note that, given its special status under the UNFCCC and its position in the accession process to the EU, some of the items listed below are

not applicable to Turkey (for instance: provision of financial and technological support to developing Countries and use of revenues under the ETS). 14 The Effort Sharing Decision (namely Decision 406/2009/EU) establishes binding annual GHG emission targets for Member States for the period

2013–2020. It covers emissions from most sectors not included in the EU ETS, such as transport (except aviation and international maritime shipping), buildings, agriculture and waste. The baseline year for the national emission targets is 2005 and, by 2020, they will collectively deliver a reduction of around 10% in total EU emissions from the sectors covered compared with 2005 levels, thus contributing, together with a 21% cut in emissions covered by the EU ETS, to the overall emission reduction goal of the Climate and Energy Package (i.e.: a 20% cut below 1990 levels by 2020).




Monitoring and reporting on adaptation actions taken by the EU Member States;

Evaluating progresses of the EU Member States in meeting the mitigation commitments under EU Decision 406/2009 on the effort to reduce their GHG emissions to meet the Community’s reduction commitments up to 2020.

As to the scope, the MRR applies to:16

Emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) from all sectors and sources as well as removals by sinks covered by NIs according to article 4 of the UNFCCC;

The GHG emissions falling within the scope of Decision 406/2009/EU (GHG emissions from non‐EU ETS sectors);

The Member States low‐carbon development strategies;

The non‐CO2 related climate impacts associated with emissions from civil aviation;

The EU and its Member States’ projections of GHG emissions from sources and removals by sinks and their policies and measures relating thereto;

The Members States’ adaptation actions.

Further details on MRR regulatory framework on NIs, NCs and BRs are analysed in the following paragraphs.

1.2.2. The EU requirements for NI systems under Regulation 525/2013/EU (MRR) and Delegated Regulations 666/2014/EU and 749/2014/EU

As already underlined, the MRR implements the most recent EU and UNFCCC legislative and technical developments, in order to improve the monitoring and reporting mechanism previously in place under Decision 280/2004/EC, now repealed. It establishes an EU Inventory system made of the compilation of the single Member States NIs, and aims at ensuring their timeliness, transparency, accuracy, completeness, consistency and comparability through a continuous improvement and a tight review cycle.17

More in detail, with regard to NIs, pursuant article 5 Member States shall establish, operate and seek to continuously improve a National Inventory Systems in accordance with UNFCCC and KP, to estimate GHG emissions and removals and to ensure the timeliness, transparency, accuracy, consistency, completeness and comparability (TACCC) of their inventories.

To this end, Member States shall ensure that their competent inventory authority have access to the widest amount of relevant data and information, in particular:

Data and methods reported for activities falling under the EU ETS regime;

Where relevant, data collected through the reporting system for fluorinated gases in various sectors;

15 Article 6 of EU Decision 406/2009 on the effort of Member States to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to meet the Community’s greenhouse

gas emission reduction commitments up to 2020 (so called Effort Sharing) prescribes that Member States shall include the following in their reports submitted pursuant to article 7 Regulation 525/2013/EU: “(a) their annual GHG emissions resulting from the implementation of Article 3 Decision 406/2009/EU setting their emission levels for the period from 2013 to 2020; (…) (c) projected progress towards meeting their obligations under this Decision, including information on national policies and measures and national projections; (d) information on planned additional national policies and measures envisaged with a view to limiting GHG emissions beyond their commitments under this Decision and in view of the implementation of an international agreement on climate change; (…)”. 16 Please note that according to article 2.(f) and (g) MRR, its scope also includes the following areas, not applicable to Turkey’s current status:

aggregate financial and technological support to developing countries and the use of revenues from auction of allowances pursuant to articles 3 and 10 EU ETS Directive. 17 The MRR sets a Union‐level review process of the GHG NIs submitted by Member States with the primary aim to ensure a thorough, reliable

assessment of their compliance with Decision 406/2009/EU. Such EU comprehensive review of Member States’ NIs shall be performed within a shorter time frame than the current UNFCCC one, to enable the use of flexibilities and the application of corrective action, where necessary, at the end of each relevant year. It is regulated by articles 19, 20 and 24 of the MRR and is carried out by the EU Commission with the support of the EU Environment Agency. Its purpose is 1) to check and verify the transparency, accuracy, completeness, consistency and comparability of information submitted; 2) to identify cases where the NI is not consistent with UNFCCC Guidelines; 3) to calculate the technical corrections necessary, in consultation with Member States.




Where relevant, emissions, data and methodologies reported by facilities under Regulation 166/2006/EU on PRTR;18

Data reported under Regulation 1099/2008/EU on energy statistics.19

Article 7 of the MRR represents the core provision on NIs since it spells out the relevant regulatory framework (i.e.: applicable principles, relevant requirements and deadlines), which is outlined below.

Firstly, the NI shall cover a time frame starting from the base year (usually 1990) up until 2 years before (namely year X‐2) the current year (year of submission, namely year X).

With regard to the NI deadlines and mandatory content, pursuant article 7.1 MRR each Member State shall by 15 January each year (year X) determine and report to the Commission the following data for the period X‐2:20

Its GHG emissions listed in Annex I to the MRR and in article 2.1 of Decision 406/2009/EU21in accordance with UNFCCC reporting requirements;22

Data in accordance with UNFCCC reporting requirements on its emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds consistent with data reported under the article 7 of Directive 2001/81/EC (NEC Directive);

Its GHG emissions by sources and removals by sinks resulting from LULUCF, according to UNFCCC reporting requirements;

Any changes to the information above for the years between the base year and year X‐3, indicating the reasons for these changes;

Information on indicators listed in Annex III MRR, for the year X‐2;23

Information on the steps taken to improve the NI estimates, especially the areas subject to expert review recommendations;

Where relevant, the results of checks on the consistency of data used for preparing the NI and data used to: i) prepare inventories of air pollutants under NEC Directive; ii) report under article 6.1 EU Regulation on F‐Gases (842/2006/EC); and report energy data according to article 4 and Annex B EU Regulation 1099/2008;

A description of changes in their NI system;

Information on their QA/QC plan, a general uncertainty assessment and a general assessment of completeness.

Secondly, by 15 March each year a complete and up‐to‐date NI Report shall be communicated to the Commission, including all the information above plus any subsequent updates to them.24

Finally, by 15 April each year Member States shall submit to the UNFCCC Secretariat their NIs with all the information already submitted to the Commission by 15 March. An EU GHG Inventory, made of all the EU Member States’ NIs, is compiled by the Commission and submitted to the UNFCCC Secretariat by the same date (15 April each year).

18 Regulation 166/2006/EU established the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) in the form of a publicly accessible electronic

database, to meet the requirements of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN‐ECE) Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers, signed by the EU in May 2003. The PRTR contains information on releases of pollutants into air, water and land, as well as off‐site transfers of pollutants present in waste‐water and waste (91 pollutants listed in Annex II are covered, including GHG, other gases, heavy metals, pesticides, chlorinated organic substances and other inorganic substances). Releases are reported when the level of the emissions exceed a certain threshold as result of one of the 65 activities listed in Annex I (transport and activities mainly regulated under the Directive 2010/75/EU on Industrial Emissions). The information on releases are gathered at national level according to international standards and methodologies and forwarded to the EU Commission on a regular basis. 19 Regulation 1099/2008/EU establishes a common framework for the production, transmission, evaluation and dissemination of comparable

energy statistics in the Community. It aims, inter alia, at ensuring the availability of accurate, up‐to‐date information on energy for assessing the impact of energy consumption on the environment, in particular in relation to the emission of GHG. 20 Some of the items under article 7.1 MRR are not provided in this list since they are not currently applicable to Turkey (information on use of

credits generated from CDM and JI; information submitted pursuant EU ETS Directive). 21 These are: Carbon dioxide (CO2); Methane (CH4); Nitrous Oxide (N2O); Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6); Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3); Hydrofluorocarbons

(HFCs); Perfluorocarbons (PFCs). 22 On the UNFCCC Reporting requirements for NIs see paragraph 1 above.

23 These are quantitative or qualitative factors or variables contributing to better understanding progresses in national policies and measures and

GHG emissions trends. 24 See article 7.3 MRR.




An additional deadline is set by article 8 MRR, stating that, where possible, by 31 July each year, Member States shall submit to the Commission approximate NI for the year X‐1, with the view to allow the of compilation of a corresponding EU approximate Inventory.

Such regulatory framework is completed by EU Delegated Regulations 666/2014 and 749/2014, both implementing the MRR.

In detail, while the former lays down further rules on the establishment and administration of the EU Inventory, the latter spells out the implementing provisions on the structure, format, submissions process and review of information reported by Member States according to article 7 MRR.

Overall, Regulation 749/2014/EU endorses and implements the UNFCCC general norms and requirements prescribed by Decision 24/CP.19 for reporting GHG in NIs, with regard to:

Use of CRF tables;

Structure of the complete NI Report.

In such a context, articles 6‐17 are of particular relevance, since they further the concrete steps and requirements Member States shall fulfil to report on: the NI systems; the consistency with data submitted under NEC Directive, the F‐Gases Regulation and the Energy Statistics system; the recalculations; uncertainty; and the approximated GHG inventory.

1.2.3. The EU requirements for NCs and BRs under Regulation 525/2013/EU

Article 18 MRR states that the rules on NCs and BRs set in article 12 UNFCCC and in Decisions 4/CP.5 and 2/CP.17 respectively, shall apply to the EU and its Member States called to submit periodically NCs and BRs to the Secretariat.25Moreover, articles 12‐15 MRR provide further guidance on compulsory reporting on policies and measures and projections, aligned with the UNFCCC Acquis.

In such a framework, article 12 requires Member States to set up by 9 July 2015 national systems for reporting on policies and measures as well as on projections. Such legal, institutional and technical arrangements shall be continuously improved, and shall ensure timeliness, accuracy, consistency, completeness and comparability of reported information including, among the others, information on data used, methodologies and models, sensitivity analysis and QA/QC plan implementation.

More in detail, with respect to reporting on policies and measures duties, starting from 15 March 2015 onwards, every two years, Member States shall provide the Commission with the following:26

A description of their national system for reporting on policies and measures, or groups of measures, and for reporting on projections of anthropogenic GHG emissions by sources and removals by sinks;

Updates relevant to their low‐carbon development strategies and progress in implementing those strategies;

Information on national policies and measures, or groups of measures, and on implementation of EU policies and measures, or groups of measures that limit or reduce GHG emissions by sources or enhance removals by sinks, presented on a sectoral basis and organised by gas or group of gases (HFCs and PFCs) listed in Annex I to MRR. These updates shall include: (i) the objective of the policy or measure and a short description of the policy or measure; (ii) the type of policy instrument; (iii) the status of implementation of the policy or measure or group of measures; (iv) where used, indicators to monitor and evaluate progress over time; (v) where available, quantitative estimates of the effects on GHG emissions by sources and removals by

sinks;27

25 On the UNFCCC requirements and Guidelines on NCs and BRs see paragraphs 1.2 and 1.3 above.

26 See article 13 MRR.

27 More in detail, quantitative estimates shall be broken down into: a) the results of ex ante assessments of the effects of individual or groups of

policies and measures on the mitigation of climate change. Estimates shall be provided for a sequence of four future years ending with 0 or 5 immediately following the reporting year, with a distinction between greenhouse gas emissions covered by the EU ETS Directive and those covered by Decision No 406/2009/EC; and b) the results of ex post assessments of the effects of individual or groups of policies and measures on the mitigation of climate change, with a distinction between greenhouse gas emissions covered by the EU ETS Directive and those covered by Decision No 406/2009/EC.




(vi) where available, estimates of the projected costs and benefits of policies and measures, as well as estimates, as appropriate, of the realised costs and benefits of policies and measures.

Member States shall communicate to the Commission any substantial changes occurred to the information reported during the first year of the reporting period, by 15 March of the year following the previous report. Additionally, they shall make all the information reported publicly available, in electronic format.

Similarly, with respect to reporting on projections, by 15 March 2015 and every two years thereafter, Member States shall report to the Commission:28

National projections of anthropogenic GHG emissions by sources and removals by sinks, organised by gas or group of gases (HFCs and PFCs) listed in Annex I of the MRR and by sector. These projections shall include quantitative estimates for a sequence of four future years ending with 0 or 5 immediately following the reporting year. National projections shall take into consideration any policies and measures adopted at Union level and shall include: (i) projections without measures where available, projections with measures, and, where available,

projections with additional measures; (ii) total greenhouse gas projections and separate estimates for the projected greenhouse gas

emissions for the emission sources covered by Directive 2003/87/EC and by Decision No 406/2009/EC;

(iii) the impact of policies and measures; (iv) the results of the sensitivity analysis performed for the projections; (v) all relevant references to the assessment and the technical reports that underpin the projections.

Any substantial changes that might occur during the first year of the reporting period, shall be communicated by the Member State concerned to the Commission, by 15 March of the year following the previous report.

Member States shall ensure that national projections and related information shall be made available to the public.

Finally, reporting to the Commission on national adaptation planning and strategies shall be fulfilled every 4 years by Member States, in alignment with the reporting timings of UNFCCC for Annex I Parties’ NCs.29 Table 3: Summary of MRR main requirements for NI, NCs and BRs30

NATIONAL INVENTORY REQUIREMENTS

National Authority competent for NI reporting to EU Commission appointed;

National Inventory System in place (art.5.1);

National competent Authorities ensured access to relevant data (5.2);

National Inventory System continuously improved (art.5.1);

Quality objectives ‐TACCC‐ met (art.5.1);

Monitoring and Reporting Focal Point (competent inventory authority) appointed (art.3);

QA/QC in place and implemented (art.6.1.(a);

Yearly NI GHG emissions covering period X‐2 developed (art.7.1);

Preliminary NI yearly reported to the EU Commission by January 2015 (art.7.1);

Yearly NIR submitted to EU Commission by March 15th

(art.7.3);

Yearly NI submitted to UNFCCC Secretariat by April 15th

(art.7.4)







NATIONAL COMMUNICATION

& BIENNIAL REPORTS REQUIREMENTS

National Authority competent for reporting to EU Commission on PaMs, projections and low carbon strategies progresses appointed;

National System to identify, assess and report on PaMs in place and continuously improved (artt.12.1 and 13.1);

National System to report on Projections in place and continuously improved (artt.12 and 13.1);

Quality objectives (TACCC) met in reporting on PaMs and Projections (art.12.2);

Biennial reporting on PaMs and Projections to EU Commission (artt.13 and 14);

Monitoring and Reporting national progresses towards achievement of UNFCCC goals (1.(b))

2. Description of Current Legal Framework for NIs, NCs and BRs in Turkey

2.1 Introductory remarks on Turkey’s status under UNFCCC, KP and within the EU Accession Process

Turkey is a party of the UNFCCC and KP from 200431and 200932 respectively. Notably, its position was subject to negotiation and was rather controversial for long time, given its peculiar status (despite OECD member at the time of UNFCCC adoption, not industrialized country, no economy in transition). Thus, after inclusion in both Annex I and Annex II of the UNFCCC at first, it was deleted from Annex II at a later stage, as effect of COP Decision 26/CP.7, recognizing its “special circumstances” which placed it into a different position compared to other Annex I Parties.33

The first and foremost consequence of this process is that, despite its Annex I status under the UNFCCC and its ratification of the KP, Turkey is not listed in Annex B of the KP and has no GHG emissions quantitative limitations/reduction commitments neither for the first (2008‐2012) nor for the second (2013‐2020) commitment period. Furthermore, it is not bound by technology, financial and know‐how transfer duties in favour of developing countries under articles 4.3, 4.4 and 4.5 of the UNFCCC, as stated by COP Decision 1/CP.16 but, on the contrary, by virtue of the same Decision, it may benefit from these same kind of support and transfers coming from Annex II parties to scale up its climate change‐related efforts.

Nevertheless, it is subject to information and communication commitments under articles 4.1 and 12 of the UNFCCC and shall establish its national system for GHG emissions estimation pursuant article 5 KP. Additionally, it shall adopt and implement national mitigation policies and measures according to article 4.2 UNFCCC. Thus, as already anticipated in Chapter 1 of this Report, it shall develop and submit the following compulsory documents, according to UNFCCC and IPCC Guidelines and rules:

A yearly NI of GHG emissions and removals estimations made of a CRF and a NIR;

NCs once every four years;

BRs once every two years.

Shifting the attention on Turkey’s duties and position with regard to the EU climate change policy and legislation, it shall be recalled that the Country applied to join the then European Economic Community, now EU, in 1987. Following the EU Stabilization and Accession Process rules, it was declared eligible to join the EU in 1997 and was then granted the official “candidate” status in 1999. Subsequently, accession negotiations with the EU were opened in October 2005 after the screening process. In order to make progresses in its path to join the EU, Turkey is called to, inter alia, align its national legislation, administrative and institutional set up with the whole current EU Acquis distributed into 35 Chapters. Among these, Chapter 27 covers Environment and Climate Change.

31 Turkey ratified the UNFCCC by Law no. 4990/2003.

32 Turkey ratified the KP by Law no. 5836/2009.

33 For more details, see Decision 26/CP.7 and FCCC/CP/1999/6, paragraphs 59 to 63 and FCCC/CP/2000/5/Add.1, paragraphs. 83 to 85.




As explained in Chapter 1, paragraph 2, the EU ratified the UNFCCC and the KP, as each of its Member States did, and holds the status of Annex I Party to the UNFCCC and Annex B Party of the KP. As a consequence, the EU and its Member States’ climate policy and legislation are strongly based on the UNFCCC, KP and COP Decisions. As such, they aim at implementing the UNFCCC, KP and COP Decisions commitments and at achieving the goals envisaged therein. More in detail, the EU is implementing the information and reporting commitments through NIs, NCs and BRs according to, among the others, Regulation 525/2013/EU (MRR) which is entirely consistent with UNFCCC Guidelines, principles and regulatory framework. Thus, the effective and full transposition and implementation of the MRR and its delegated acts represent a mandatory condition to be satisfied by Turkey in the framework of its accession negotiations. At the same time, the approximation of its national legal system to the MRR would also further improve its level of compliance with the UNFCCC information and reporting requirements described in Chapter 1, paragraph 1.

2.2 Current National Inventory Arrangements in Turkey: legislative and institutional state of art

2.2.1. General framework

The Ministry for Environment and Urbanization (MoEU) is responsible for climate change and air pollution policies and measures in Turkey. A Climate Change Department and an Air Management Department are established within its General Directorate of Environmental Management. However, given the cross cutting nature of climate change sector, in particular with regard to GHG estimation activities, several entities take part, with different roles and extent, to the development of the NI, from planning to preparation until management. In such a context, TurkStat is the main responsible authority to coordinate and implement NI activities, being also the National Focal Point for NI in charge to submit the final yearly document to the UNFCCC Secretariat. The structure and competences of TurkStat are regulated by the Turkish Law on Statistic34and by the Turkish Official Statistic Programme (OSP) envisaged therein.35According to this legislation, TurkStat shall act in scientific and technical authonomy and is competent, among the others, for developing environmental statistics which, indeed, encompass GHG emissions and air pollution statistics. 36 Consistently with the general principles on official statistics, other institutions, organizations and professional associations are called to support TurkStat in this task.37The formal appointment of TurkStat as focal point for NI, however, is provided by Decision numbered 2009/1 of the Climate Change Coordination Board (CCCB) of 2009 (now CCAMCB) on the legal grounds of the Statistic Law and the OSP.

The establishment of an ad hoc Governmental Council coordinating climate change initiatives and measures dates back 2001, once Turkey set up the Climate Change Coordination Council (CCCC),38restructured in 2010 and 2012.39 In parallel, the Coordination Council on Air Emissions (CCAE) was established in 201240. Given their close relation and similar sector of competences, the two were finally merged into the CCAMCB in 2013.41 The CCAMCB represents a crucial entity given its great potentials in terms of enhancing and streamlining Turkish GHG monitoring and reporting performances. In such a context, its structure and functions are analysed more in depth in the following paragraph.

2.2.2. Focus on the CCAMCB: regulatory framework, structure and competences

As stated above, the CCAMCB was created by Prime Minister Circular 2013/11, merging the former CCCC and CCAE.

Its composition, powers, sectoral competences and functioning are spelled out in the recently adopted Directive on Working Principles and Procedures of CCAMCB (the Directive hereinafter).42As can be inferred from the list of members below, reporting its articles 3‐4, the CCAMCB (the Board hereinafter) is structured in order to ensure a high

34See Law on Statistic of Turkey no.5429/2005 in Official Gazette no.25997 dated 18 /11/2005.

35 The OSP is regulated by articles 3 ss of the Statistic Law. It sets the basic principles and standards for the production and dissemination of official

statistics required at national or international level, in order to ensure their timeliness, reliability, transparency and impartiality. It covers a time span of 5 years and the current one applies to the 2012‐2016 period. 36 See articles 17 and 18 Law on Statistic spelling out duties and authorities of the Institute (TurkStat) and Section 6 OSP on the areas to be covered

by Environmental Statistics. 37 See paragraph 2.3 focusing on NI preparation and management.

38 See Circular of the Prime Minister 2001/2.

39 See Circular of the Prime Minister no. 2010/18 and 2012/2.

40 See Circular of the of the Prime Minister no.2012/22.

41 See Circular of the Prime Minister no.2013/11.

42 Annex I of CCAMCB Decision adopted by meeting no.2014/1 dated 07/05/2014.




degree of technical and political expertise in different sectors, as well as the widest possible representation of relevant institutions and stakeholders:

President: MoEU (Ministry or Undersecretary);

Secretariat: MoEU (General Directorate of Environmental Management);

Member: Undersecretary of Ministry of EU Affairs;

Member: Undersecretary of MoSIT;

Member: Undersecretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs;

Member: Undersecretary of Ministry of Economy;

Member: Undersecretary of MENR;

Member: Undersecretary of MoFAL;

Member: Undersecretary of Ministry of Internal Affairs;

Member: Undersecretary of Ministry of Finance;

Member: Undersecretary of Ministry of Development;

Member: Undersecretary of MoFWA;

Member: Undersecretary of Ministry of National Education;

Member: Undersecretary of Ministry of Health;

Member: Undersecretary of MTMAC;

Member: Undersecretary of Treasury;

Member: TurkStat;

Member: the Prime Ministry Disasters and Emergency Management;

Member: President of Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges;

Member: President of the Association of Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen;

Member: the Turkish Association of Independent Industrialists and Businessmen.

The Board shall meet at least once a year and has the following relevant tasks, pursuant articles 5‐6 of the Directive:

Taking decisions and measures to fight against climate change and preventing air pollution; and

Coordinate activities of setting up internal and external policies dealing with UNFCCC and UN‐ECE CLRTP.

To this end, it is entitled to take and publish “decisions” in its fields of competences and to follow up on their implementation. Although this wording is quite general, it seems to be concluded that the Board can take any kind of measures and decisions provided they fall under its tasks and, as to their legal nature and force, it seems they rather have a guidance role with a strong authority. Indeed, despite the lack of any explicit enforcement/compliance mechanism foreseen, the Members of the Board shall ensure that decisions are implemented in their own institutions/associations and report to the Board on the outcomes of the implementation.43

Remarkably, according to article 6 the Board has the authority to establish Working Groups (WGs) and advisory groups and to monitor and assess their activities. The WGs, meeting at least twice a year, shall provide technical support to the Board, carry out the activities envisaged in Board Decisions and operate according to their working programmes. Institutions and Organizations in the WGs shall be represented by two persons one of which shall be at least at the position of Head of Department. For each WG a Coordinator Agency is appointed and MoEU shall be a permanent member of each WG.44WGs can receive scientific and technical support from Advisors coming from academia, civil society and private sector, provided their qualified expertise in climate change/air pollution fields.

Up to date, 7 WGs have been established and, according to their tasks, four of them are of particular relevance for our analysis:45

43 See article 8 of the Directive. It can be said that, while some decisions are immediately applicable due to their technical/administrative nature

(appointment of Chief Negotiators, for instance, or establishment of Working Groups), some others need further endorsement/approval procedures to be effective (for instance: the INDC recently adopted by Turkey was “decided” by the Board but needed the approval from the Parliament). 44 See article 13 of the Directive.

45 The list reports only a selection of the most relevant tasks of the 4 WG directly dealing with GHG emissions inventory, mitigation and adaptation,

as well as air emissions management. The original numbering of the respective tasks provided in Annex II of CCAMCB Decision adopted by meeting no.2014/1 dated 07/05/2014, establishing the 7 WGs and determining their respective tasks, has been kept here.




WG1‐Mitigation Coordination Agency MoEU‐ Tasks: 1.Contribution for development of Turkish NCs; 2.“Setting up” policies and measures for GHG emissions mitigation and performed the related cost‐analysis; 3.Working on GHG emissions trends including scenario without measures‐with measures‐with additional measures; 4.Contribution to preparation, update and monitoring of mitigation sector strategies and action plans; 7.Participation to UNFCCC negotiations; 8.Coordination of activities for harmonization with EU Acquis on mitigation;46

WG2‐Adaptation Coordination Agency MoEU‐ Tasks: 1.Contribution for development of Turkish NCs; 2.“Setting up” policies and measures for adaptation; 3.Preparing, updating and monitoring strategies and action plans for adaptation; 4.Participating to UNFCCC negotiations; 5.Performe socio‐economic analysis, including modelling and estimation, climate change impacts and responses; (…); 8.Coordination of activities for harmonization with EU Acquis on adaptation;47

WG3‐GHG Inventory Coordination Agency TurkStat‐ Tasks: 1.Calculating and evaluating national GHG emissions; 2.Contributing to preparation of NIR and CRF to be submitted to UNFCCC; 3.Contributing to NCs to be submitted to UNFCCC; 4.Participation to activities falling under the UNFCCC scope; 5.Participation to UNFCCC negotiations; (…); 7.Carrying out consultations with private sector to ensure proper functioning of MRV of GHG emissions;48

WG7‐Air Management Coordination Agency MoEU‐ Tasks: 1.Improving air pollutant emissions inventory so to include country specific information; 2.Collecting data on emissions by sectors; 3.developing national EFs; (…).

Given the cross cutting nature of their tasks, the WGs introduced above are surely connected and aim, overall, at covering all the reporting and information commitments under UNFCCC, KP and EU. More in detail, however, recalling the analysis outlined in Chapter 1 of this Report about the mandatory contents of NIs, NCs and BRs according to UNFCCC Guidelines, it can be inferred that: a) WG3‐GHG Inventory is called to play a paramount role in supporting TurkStat for the compilation of the NI (and in fact, TurkStat is its Coordination Agency); b) WGs1 and 2 on Mitigation and Adaptation should be particularly involved in supporting MoEU (designated Coordination Agency for these WGs) in the development of many relevant chapters of NCs and BRs; while 3) WG7 has a more marked intersectoral nature and should help in both NIs, NCs and BRs.

2.2.3. Focus on NI preparation and archiving

The NI shall be prepared by the recently established CCAMCB WG3‐GHG Emissions Inventory described above. TurkStat is responsible for coordinating the activities of the WG and, additionally, also plays the role of National Emission Inventory Focal Point.49In addition, several line Ministries, listed below, are involved in the entire process, according to the different NI preparation and management activities (collecting ADs; Selecting methods and EFs; GHG emissions and removals estimations; Uncertainty assessment; QA/QC Plan implementation; Verification; Archiving):

TurkStat‐Environment, Energy and Transport Statistics Department;

Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MoFAL)‐General Directorate of Agricultural Reform;

Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs (MoFWA)‐General Directorate of Forestry;

Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation (MoEU)‐General Directorate of Environmental Management;

Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communication (MTMAC)‐General Directorate of Foreign Affairs and European Union;

Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MENR)‐General Directorate of Energy Affairs.

46 WG1‐Mitigation is made of representatives of the following Institutions: MENR (Electricity Generation sectorial experts); MoEU (Mitigation in

Building sectorial experts); MoSIT (Mitigation in Industry sectorial experts); MTMAC; MoEU (waste sectorial experts); MoFAL; MoFWA (LULUCF experts); MoEU (GHG projections experts); MoEU (carbon market experts); MoEU (economic impacts of mitigation measures experts). 47 WG2‐ADAPTATION is made of representatives of the following Institutions: MoFWA (water resources management experts); MoFAL (agriculture

and food security experts); Disaster and Emergency Risk Management Unit under Prime Ministry; Ministry of Health; MoFWA (ecosystem services, biodiversity and forestry experts); Ministry of Culture and Tourism; MoFWA (projections and systematic observation experts); MoEU (economic impacts of adaptation measures); MTMAC. 48WG3‐GHG Inventory is currently operational. It is made of 24 persons coming from the following 6 different Institutions, ensuring high sectorial

expertise: TurkStat(8); MoEU (2); MENR (4); MTMC (3); MoFAL (4); MoFWA (3). 49 See paragraph 2.1 above.




In detail, with regard to emissions calculations, useful guidance is provided by the OSP Section 6 reported hereinafter, allocating roles and responsibilities among the Ministries at the macro level: “Within the scope of GHG emission statistics, emissions originating from energy, industrial processes, solvent and other product use, agricultural activities and waste, and carbon removal by sinks are calculated at national level annually by using recommended approaches in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines. Emissions originating from the sectors of energy other than electricity generation and transport are calculated by TurkStat via using the energy balance sheets of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources. Emissions from coal mining, oil and gas systems, industrial processes, agricultural activities and waste are calculated by TurkStat. The emissions originating from electricity generation are calculated on the basis of fuel characteristics of all power plants by the General Directorate of Energy Affairs of The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (ETKB); the emissions originating from transportation are calculated by The Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communication and then sent to TurkStat. The carbon removal under forestry and other land use chapter is estimated by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, and The Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs. The fluorinated gases are calculated by the General Directorate of Environmental Management of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. The national emission inventory for whole Turkey is integrated by TurkStat, and presented to use.”

This provision is implemented and furthered by the recently adopted QA/QC Plan specifying that National Inventory Report and CRF Tables are prepared by the responsible institutions/organisations and sent to TurkStat. Upon combining and checking them, TurkStat submits NIR and CRF tables to UNFCCC Secretariat. The details are provided in Table 4 below, taken from the QA/QC Plan, identifying the public/private entities competent for the calculations as well as for the activities preliminary to calculations (AD collection; Selection of EFs and methods), according to the applicable sectors: Table 4. Institutions and Organisations Responsible for Inventory50

Sector Activity Category/CRF Code

Collection of Activity Data

Selection of Methods and Emission Factors

Calculations

Energy

Energy – 1 (Excluding 1.A.1.a‐ Electricity and heat generation and 1.A.3‐Transport)

MENR TurkStat TurkStat

Electricity and heat generation ‐ 1.A.1.a

MENR MENR MENR

Transport MTMAC MTMAC MTMAC

Industrial Processes and Other Product Uses

Industrial activities ‐ 2 (except F‐gases)

TurkStat TurkStat TurkStat

F‐Gases MoEU MoEU MoEU

Agriculture Agriculture ‐ 3 TurkStat TurkStat TurkStat

Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry

LULUCF ‐ 4 MoFWA, MoFAL

MoFWA, MoFAL

MoFWA, MoFAL

Waste Waste ‐ 5 TurkStat TurkStat TurkStat

The QA/QC Plan also provides a broader and much detailed picture on the line Ministries (plus TurkStat) competent with regard to the entire set of NI activities, (from AD collection to reporting and archiving), allocated according to Table 4 below:

50 Source: QA/QC Plan adopted by Annex III‐CCAMCB Decision 2014/1 dated 07/05/2014, Section 2.




Table 5. Institutions and Organisations Responsible for Emission Inventory51

Activity Institutions and Organisations

Collection of activity data TurkStat, MoFAL, MoFWA, MoEU, MTMAC, MENR

Selection of methods, emission factors TurkStat, MoFAL, MoFWA, MoEU, MTMAC, MENR

Sectorial emission calculations TurkStat, MoFAL, MoFWA, MoEU, MTMAC, MENR

Key Source Analysis TurkStat

Uncertainty evaluation TurkStat, MoFAL, MoFWA, MoEU, MTMAC, MENR

Filling in CRF tables MoFAL, MoFWA, MoEU, MTMAC, MENR under coordination of TURKSTAT,

Preparation of National Inventory Report (NIR) TurkStat, MoFAL, MoFWA, MoEU, MTMAC, MENR

Inventory outputs (CRF tables and NIR) TurkStat

Reporting to UNFCCC Secretariat TurkStat

Archiving TurkStat, MoFAL, MoFWA, MoEU, MTMAC, MENR

The Tables above and the QA/QC Plan define the roles and responsibilities of the entities involved in NI preparation and management.

However, such clarity does not necessarly ensure smooth data and information flow, consistency of data and methods used by different entities and reporting of the respective outcomes.

For sure, it may be deemed that each entity implements its duties individually but coordinates with the other by virtue of TurkStat as coordinating Agency as well as through the periodic WG’s meetings. On the top of that, it can be expected that the adoption and implementation of each of the WGs’ working programme as well as the first‐time implementation of the recent QA/QC Plan will have beneficial effects on the interaction among the involved entities.

Nevertheless, the strengthening of current interinstitutional coordination might be considered through dedicated MoUs or CCAMCB Decisions focusing on data provision methods and schedule.52

Focusing on Archiving activities, always recalling the related applicable UNFCCC Guidelines analysed in Chapter 1 of this Report, the QA/QC Plan prescribes that Archiving shall be carried out in accordance with the Regulation on State Archive Services.

According to the recently approved QA/QC Plan, sectorial experts from the entities involved in NI shall send all info and documents to TurkStat within 6 weeks upon submission of the inventory to UNFCCC Secretariat. TurkStat shall carry out central archiving through its main server and its Inventory Archive Officer, implementing central archiving activities and having authority to make changes, restructuring or copying on the server. The following items shall be archived:53

1. Institutional information:

Legislation and legal basis (Official Statistical Programme, CCAMCB Decisions etc.);

Decisions, activities, planning on tasks and responsibilities;

Institutional protocols regarding preparation of inventory;

Contact information of responsible people in institutions and organizations involved;

Contact information of sectorial experts;

Verification, QC reports, summary reports explaining recalculations and reasons as well as QA results;

All official correspondence and e‐mails.

51 See QA/QC Plan Section 2.

52 See Chapter 3 on Gap analysis.

53 See QA/QC Plan Section 4.




2. Sectorial data:

EFs and other parameters according to sources;

Explanation documents, calculation tables regarding selection of method;

Other sources, if there are any;

AD and explanation;

Information regarding uncertainty of AD and EFs;

Sectorial information;

Information regarding completeness of the data;

Recalculations;

Planned activity lists; 3. QA/QC:

QA/QC plan;

QC lists and QA reports;

Inventory Improvement Plan; 4. Other:

CRF tables, CRF reporting programme back up file;

NIR;

Trends, key source and uncertainty analyses work sheets

Information regarding database and software used for inventory.

However, this archiving system is not fully in place yet, since the Country is currently finalizing the implementation of a fully‐fledged database with emission and removals estimates, EFs, AD, choice of methodological tiers and other relevant information. This should be the first of three stages aiming at setting up an archiving system in the format of a national emissions inventory portal, integrating into one system the aforementioned database, a web‐based data collection system and a documentation and archiving system. It shall include internal documentation on QA/QC procedures, external and internal reviews, documentation on annual key categories and key category identification and planned inventory improvements.54Up to date, the database is located on the servers of TurkStat but is not accessible remotely yet. The data input is possible only by a designated person from the TurkStat Information Technology Department and complies with standard security and backup procedures as for other national databases in TurkStat.

2.2.4. Focus on the QA/QC Plan

The NI Guidelines, developed by UNFCCC, requires each Annex I Party to develop a QA/QC Plan as part of Planning phase, according to 2006 IPCC Guidelines for NI,55 whose Chapter 6 provides guidance, principles and technical support regarding this issue as well as Verification. There, IPCC specifies that QA/QC procedures aim at ensuring the attainment of quality objectives in the NI significantly contributing to NI’s timeliness, transparency, accuracy, comparability, consistency and completeness. Together with Verification, the implementation of QA/QC procedures shall be considered integral part of NI Preparation and play a pivotal role not only to achieve the quality objectives spelled out above but also for continuous reassessing and improving the NI where needed.

Given their relevance, the definitions of QC, QA and Verification activities provided by IPCC are reported below:56

Quality Control (QC) is a system of routine technical activities to assess and maintain the quality of the inventory as it is being compiled. It is performed by personnel compiling the inventory. The QC system is designed to: (i) Provide routine and consistent checks to ensure data integrity, correctness, and completeness; (ii) Identify and address errors and omissions; (iii) Document and archive inventory material and record all QC activities. QC activities include general methods such as accuracy checks on data acquisition and calculations, and the use of approved standardised procedures for emission and removal calculations, measurements, estimating

54 See FCCC/ARR/2014/TUR Report on the Individual Review of the Inventory Submission of Turkey submitted in 2014.

55 See Chapter 1 of this Report.

56 See 2006 IPCC Guidelines for NI, Chapter 6, page 6.5 Box 6.1.




uncertainties, archiving information and reporting. QC activities also include technical reviews of categories, activity data, emission factors, other estimation parameters, and methods.

Quality Assurance (QA) is a planned system of review procedures conducted by personnel not directly involved in the inventory compilation/development process. Reviews, preferably by independent third parties, are performed upon a completed inventory following the implementation of QC procedures. Reviews verify that measurable objectives (data quality objectives) were met, ensure that the inventory represents the best possible estimates of emissions and removals given the current state of scientific knowledge and data availability, and support the effectiveness of the QC programme.

Verification refers to the collection of activities and procedures conducted during the planning and development, or after completion of an inventory that can help to establish its reliability for the intended applications of the inventory. Verification refers specifically to those methods that are external to the inventory and apply independent data, including comparisons with inventory estimates made by other bodies or through alternative methods. Verification activities may be constituents of both QA and QC, depending on the methods used and the stage at which independent information is used.

Until 2014, Turkey did not have in place a fully‐fledged QA/QC Plan responding to all IPCC’s requirements. This gap significantly affected the quality, effectiveness and reliability of the Country’s NI. Therefore, the recent adoption of a proper QA/QC Plan by the CCAMCB in 2014,57 in line with IPCC Good Practice, undoubtedly signs a landmark step for improving its NI quality. The contents and procedures envisaged in the QA/QC Plan have already been partially examined in the previous paragraph, dealing with NI preparation and archiving. Thus, here, the focus is on QC/QA and Verification activities covered by Section 3 of the Plan.

In detail, with regard to QC the following rules and steps apply:

Each Institution involved in NI development is responsible for its own QC general and category specific activities;58

Both general and specific QC activities are carried out by sectorial QC experts within the Institutions, using the ad hoc check lists attached in Annex II (general QC) and Annex III (category specific) of the Plan;

Check lists are filled in by sectorial QC experts for each CRF category and sent to TurkStat with an official letter;

QA/QC Officer in TurkStat files the letters;

QC sectorial experts make the corrections needs emerging from the QC activities;

QA/QC Officer checks if all QC activities have been implemented as per the applicable check lists and prepares a summary of them;

All NI Team prepares an improvement plan under QA/QC Officer coordination.

As far QA activities are concerned, the following rules apply:

Carried out by QA Expert/s selected by line institutions and organizations under TurkStat coordination;

Covering the whole NI or selected (key) categories;

Thorough checks on: assumptions for AD, EFs and other parameters used; calculations; conversion factors;

Thorough assessment of: transparency, accuracy, completeness, consistency and comparability; emission trends over the years and their possible deviations and changes;

QA expert/s prepare/s a report identifying critical areas and shortcomings;

Report submitted to QA/QC Officer in TurkStat;

All NI Team prepares an improvement plan under QA/QC Officer coordination.

Finally, with respect to Verification activities the Plan concisely provides that:

Each Institution involved in NI development is responsible for its own verification activities (according to the sectors);

Sectorial experts within the Institution carry out the activities;

57 SeeQA/QC Plan adopted by Annex III‐CCAMCB Decision 2014/1 dated 07/05/2014.

58 Energy‐1: TurkStat; Energy‐1.A.1.a: MENR; Energy‐1.A.3.: MTMAC; Industrial Activities (excluding Halocarbons and SF6 consumption): TurkStat;

Industrial Activities‐2.F‐Halocarbons and SF6 consumption: MoEU; Use of solvent and other products: TurkStat; Agriculture: ; LULUCF: MoFWA and MoFAL; Waste: TurkStat.




Consists of comparing emissions calculated by the competent entity with emissions calculated using different methods and, in case differences emerge, thorough explanations are due in the NIR.

According to the Plan, QA/QC and Verification activities shall be performed within the “Inventory Reviewing” phase, due to take place in February. Indeed, the Plan spells out the entire NI “work flow” occurring throughout May‐April each year according to a tight schedule (starting from planning‐ going to preparation‐ continuing to reviewing‐ flowing into result and improvement).

QA/QC and Verification, as well as uncertainty analysis, are engaging yet crucial steps for improving the NI quality. In such a context, their outcomes are valuable contributions for the final stage of NI development, namely Reporting, aiming at identifying and assessing the issues useful to improve the NI in the following years. To this end, the QA/QC Officer in TurkStat drafts the Report in consultation with relevant stakeholders, where all findings of QA/QC and Verification activities convey, together with UNFCCC reviews and other relevant information.

2.2.5. National competent Authorities and data availability according to the MRR: brief overview on Turkish current MRV system

The availability of reliable data on GHG emissions from the sectors to be monitored and reported under the NI is a fundamental prerequisite to ensure its accuracy and completeness with respect to both sectors, categories and types of GHG emitted. In such a context, as already stated in this Report, article 5.2 of the MRR requires Member States to ensure their respective National competent Authority/ies access to a wide range of data and information related to GHG emissions generated by different economic sectors.59

In general, according to the Law on Statistic (article 7 and ss.), TurkStat is empowered to have access to national data and information through censuses and surveys, as well as by access to national register system. Further details are set by the OSP. However, no specific provision currently sets on the GHG emitting activities the duty to provide TurkStat with relevant data and information. The issue, of remarkable relevance for the achievement of NI quality objectives, has been recently addressed in the Turkish legal system by means of the MRV Regulation and Communique,60 aiming at establishing a MRV system in the Country. The regulatory framework established therein implements the applicable EU Acquis related to monitoring and reporting GHG emissions from activities falling under the Industrial Emissions Directive (2010/75/EU) and the EU ETS. Very briefly, the system requires covered activities to submit a MRV plan to the MoEU for approval and, once approved, implement the plan with the ultimate mandatory target to provide a yearly report on their GHG emissions duly verified by impartial, accredited external verifiers.61 The MRV system applies from 2015 onwards, thus significantly contributing to the availability of data on GHG emissions to be used by the NI compilers. Accoding to the Regulation’s Annex I it is currently expected to cover CO2, N2O and PFCs emissions, leaving the remaining GHG emissions out of its scope. However, the system is being further ameliorated and integrated in the framework of a bilateral cooperation project aiming at, among the others, establishing a national system for GHG data collection and management as well as enhancing national mitigation capacities.62

Taking into consideration the current lack of national legislation setting on installations a mandatory duty of reporting their GHG emissions data and related information for the purpose of NI development, the establishment of a robust MRV system and its full implementation is likely to meaningfully contribute to ensuring National competent Authorities access to relevant data to be used for NI preparation.

2.3. Overview on current Institutional system for NCs and BRs

Notably, as pointed out in Chapter 1,63NCs encompass not only a Section on GHG Inventory Information, they also include, among the others, separate, dedicated Sections on: a) National Circumstances; Policies and Measures (PaMs); Projections and total effect of PaMs. In such a context, national capacities to identify effective, feasible PaMs and to develop reliable indications on future trends in GHG emissions, also considering their effects, are of utmost importance.

59 See Chapter 2 paragraph 2.2.

60See Official Gazette no.28274 dated 25/04/2012, no.29068 dated 22/07/2014 and no.29314 dated 02/04/2015.

61 See articles 5‐9 of the MRV Regulation.

62Further details available at https://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/31505.html.

63 See COP Decision 4/CP.5 and Chapter I paragraph 1.2 of this Report.




MoEU is competent for developing and approving the NCs for Turkey. So far, the Country submitted five NCs while the sixth one, originally due by 2014, is currently being finalized. The sixth NC, funded with national resources, is being developed with the support of TUBITAK, an external scientific body. As a rule, each draft Section of the NC shall be revised by the relevant ministries and agencies and then approved by MoEU who is also in charge of its submission to the UNFCCC. Recalling the CCAMCB tasks and, in particular, the fields of competence of its WG1‐Mitigation, their active role in identification and elaboration of PaMs as well as emission trends with measures/additional measures/without measures shall be underscored.64

Turkey’s key framework document for NCs development is the Tenth Development Plan for the period 2014‐2018, coordinated by the Ministry of Development and endorsed by the General Assembly. Furthermore, the National Climate Change Strategy,65including a set of sectoral targets for the period 2010–2020 and the National Climate Change Action Plan, endorsing a set of concrete measures and activities across the line Ministries for the period 2011– 2023, apply. These are based on the Development Plan and implement its goals with respect to climate change field. Finally, concerning BRs, the Country, called to submit its first BR, is currently receiving the support of a GEF‐UNDP project, aiming at enhancing the national capacities to implement the related information and reporting commitments.66

3. Legal, Technical and Institutional Assessment

3.1. Introduction

Chapter 1 of this Report focused on the UNFCCC‐KP and EU regulatory framework for NIs and NCs while Chapter 2 dealt with the description of the current state of art of Turkish national arrangements for NIs and NCs. This Chapter provides a gap assessment of the Turkish current system, taking into consideration the analysis performed in the previous two Chapters. In such a context, a LTI analysis is performed in order to identify the (LTI) issues that need to be dealt with as a priority to ensure a meaningful, efficient transposition and implementation of the MRR. It is worthy to underscore that, despite the purpose of this Report to address the steps needed for the approximation to the MRR, especially its articles 7.1‐3 (GHG Inventory development and reporting), 13.1 (reporting on PaMs) and 14.1 (reporting on projections), the assessment carried out has a broader scope and touches a wider set of legal requirements. This is due to the strong link between the MRR and the UNFCCC and KP Acquis, whereby the first implements at EU (and its Member States’) level the reporting commitments set under the UNFCCC umbrella. Therefore, the gap assessment primarily considers the “mere” prescriptions spelled out in the MRR but also takes as benchmarks the requirements and principles set in the UNFCCC, KP and related COP Decisions. Such twofold comparative perspective is perfectly matching the assumption that a sustainable NI system is in line with the MRR only provided that it fulfils, at the same time, the applicable conditions set by the UNFCCC legal framework. The reasoning underlying this top‐down approach may be represented by the following picture, also clarifying the implied coordination relationship among the International, EU and National levels:67

64 See supra, paragraph 2.2.

65 Turkey’s Supreme Planning Council endorsed the Strategy and the CCAMCB is responsible for its implementation under the coordination of MEU.

66 On this topic see: http://www.tr.undp.org/content/turkey/en/home/operations/projects/environment_and_energy/support‐for‐the‐preparation‐

of‐the‐turkey‐s‐first‐biennial‐repor.html 67 Source of the picture: Author’s own elaboration.




The LTI assessment of the following paragraphs analyses the gaps and needs of Turkish NI with particular regard to its Planning‐Preparation‐Management stages and also briefly outlines the Country’s NC system shortcomings. To this end, the findings of Chapter 1 and 2 as well as the most recent ERT reports on Turkish NI and NC are taken in to account.68

3.2. LTI gap analysis: relevant issues for efficient transposition and implementation of MRR

Taking into consideration the requirements outlined in Table 169related to NI Planning‐Preparation and Management activities and the definition of TACCC quality objectives, this paragraph identifies and analyses the most relevant LTI issues that shall be addressed as a matter of priority to promote the complete transposition of MRR as well as its effective implementation (especially with regard to its articles 5, 7.1‐3, 12, 13.1 and 14.1). In this perspective, the barriers to overcome and challenges to be dealt with are treated referring to the 3 NI development stages (namely: Planning; Preparation and Management). Finally, the LTI gap analysis briefly outlines NC system shortcomings, with the view to shade some lights on the aspects to be harmonized with MRR articles 12‐14. An overall assessment resulting from the LTI analysis is then provided in paragraph 3. PLANNING STAGE: 70

(a) A single national entity responsible for NI has been designated (TurkStat) by means of a proper legal basis (Law on Statistic and OSP), also allocating to the line ministries the activities related to the Preparation stage. Such distribution of duties has been further endorsed by the 2014 QA/QC Plan. The activities related to the Preparation stage have been allocated to the line ministries involved by virtue of the OSP, based on the Law on Statistic, and further endorsed by the 2014 QA/QC Plan. Furthermore, the CCAMCB has been established by Prime Ministry Circular and its WGs have been tasked with several duties. Formally, the primary institutional, legal and procedural arrangements for NI development are in place and the NI is submitted every year as prescribed. However, the current institutional system should be enhanced. As a priority, the authority of the Board should be consolidated by a stronger legal basis.

(b) The NI does not require any formal approval: it is compiled by TurkStat who also submits it to the UNFCCC Secretariat. TurkStat, due to its quality of national inventory focal point, is also in charge of responding to issues raised during the NI review process. It could be useful to consider whether to introduce some kind of endorsement procedure for the formal approval of the NI, foreseeing the involvement of the WG3‐GHG Inventory and MoEU.

(c) A QA/QC Plan has been adopted by the CCAMCB very recently (May 2014) and is being implemented for the first time in 2015. It formally transposes the UNFCCC and IPCC Good Practice requirements but only its concrete implementation is going to prove its effectiveness. Being the first time of its implementation, it may pose high challenges to the line entities involved in the activities and deadlines foreseen therein.

68 See FCCC/ARR/2014/TUR (ERT Report on Turkish NI 2014) and FCCC/IDR.5/TUR (ERT Report on Turkish 5

th NC).

69 See Table 1 under Chapter 1 ‐ paragraph 1.1 of this Report.

70 Please note that the legal and Institutional gaps are only sketched here, since a more detailed gap analysis on these issues is provided in the

following paragraph.

UNFCCC+

KP+

COPDecisions+

IPCCGoodPractice

EUMonitoring&ReportingAcquis

(MRR525/2013/EU+

Implementingacts)

NationalLegislative,

Technical&InstitutionalArrangements

Set regulatory framework for information & reporting; Provide: Guidelines, principles, structure and requirements for National Inventory Arrangements, NIs, NCs and BRs; Provide prescribed methodologies for GHG emissions and removals estimations + Requirements of QA/QC procedure. Implements information & reporting commitments at EU level; Implements UNFCCC+COPDecisions+IPCC Good Practice Guidelines; Establishes EU‐wide NIs; NCs and BRs made of a compilation of Member States’ ones; Sets targets, deadlines and obligations for Member States with regard to information, monitoring & reporting on GHG emissions & removals. Approximate National legal systems to EU Monitoring & Reporting Acquis, based on applicable UNFCCC+ KP+COPDecisions+IPCC Good Practice regulatory framework=> Transpose and implement International & EU applicable Acquis on information, monitoring & reporting.




(d) The QA/QC Plan adopted in 2014 envisages the steps required by the IPCC Guidelines to ensure reliability of NI and its continuous improvement. Indeed it covers Uncertainty Analysis, Colletion of AD and EFs, their Checks and Verification activities as part of QC procedures. Moreover, the QA/QC and Reporting phase requires the preparation of an NI Improvement Plan (by the QA/QC Officer) to ensure progresses in meeting quality objectives (TACCC).

PREPARATION STAGE:71

Despite the formal establishment of the NI arrangements and the allocation to the line entities of the respective roles and duties, some significant cross‐cutting (common to all NI sectors) and sector‐specific weaknesses, hindering the achievement of quality objectives, persist.

To this respect, UNFCCC ERT Report on Turkish NI 2014, representing the most recent available official UNFCCC assessment at the time of writing, identified specific issues to be addressed as a matter of priority and formulated the related recommendations to the Country.72

ERT recommendations were especially related to the need of improvements of transparency, consistency and completeness in all NI sectors, as well as to the encouragement to use higher Tiers and more accuracy for key sources.

The Country timely responded to ERT recommendations and made the necessary corrections and improvements for 2015 submission.

Actually, it may be reckoned that major difficulites in fully reaching the prescribed NI quality objectives (TACCC) in all sectors were mainly due to the lack of an effective QA/QC procedure.

Therefore further significative improvements may be expected in the following NIs, considered that the QA/QC Plan has now been adopetd by the CCAMCB.

In this regard, however it cannot be disregarded that the Plan has been introduced in the NI system very recently (May 2014) and the entities involved are facing its engaging implementation for the first time ever.

MANAGEMENT stage:

The Country did not establish a complete documentation and archiving system yet. Information are often gathered and stored separately by the Institutions involved in a decentralized manner. This generates lack of completeness of information archived, as well as difficulties in record keeping and access to stored information. Moreover, it endangers the building and maintenance of institutional memory.

In detail the following issues shall be addressed: (w) Centralized system not formally in place yet; (x) Decentralized method of archiving with files stored separately in own Ministries Experts’ computers.

However, it shall be recalled that the Country is currently engaged in the creation of a GHG emission portal where all relevant documents are stored and available, thus contributing to amelioration of the archiving system.73

Shifting the analysis on the development of NCs, the following troublesome LTI issues can be sketched:7475

A National System to develop NCs is formally in place. Main responsibilities have been allocated to MoEU, national focal point for climate change issues, which may benefit from the contribution of external advisors, additional to the contribution of CCAMCB through its WG1‐MITIGATION (once fully operational) and 3‐ GHG INVENTORY.

However, the 5th NC still show some critical areas to be addressed, in particular with regard to the following issues:

(a) Lack of TIMELINESS in NC submission;

71 Source: Author’s own elaboration of ERT 2014 NI review.

72SeeFCCC/ARR/2014/TUR73 See Chapter 2 ‐ paragraph 2.3.

74 Please note that, according to the purpose and scope of this Report, as defined in the ToR, the main focus is on LTI analysis of the NI system in

Turkey, to devise areas and options for improvement for an effective transposition and implementation of MRR. Therefore, the LTI analysis of the NC system is incidentally touched with the view to assess current national capacities to report on PaMs and projections. 75 Source: Author’s elaboration of ERT review of Turkish 5

th NC.




(b) Lack of TRANSPARENCY in describing specifically how each aspect of the National Circumstances and their changes affect GHG emissions and removals over time;

(c) Lack of information on estimations of GHG emissions and removals in NI summary for years 2010 and 2011 (data and information reported only until 2009, not according to UNFCCC Guidelines for NC);

(d) Lack of TRANSPARENCY and COMPLETENESS in PaMs (for instance: lists of PaMs in the textual and the tabular parts of Turkey’s NC5 do not fully match; incomplete information of PaMs costs);

(e) Lack of TRANSPARENCY and COMPLETENESS in reporting the total effects of PaMs (GHG affected not specified for some PaMs; quantitative estimates of impacts of PaMs not provided for some sectors);

(f) Lack of COMPLETENESS in Projections (set of projections not reported).76

3.2.1. LTI gap analysis: focus on legal and Institutional conditionalities for a meaningful alignment to MRR

This paragraph focuses on the current legal and Institutional gaps and weaknesses that shall be addressed as a matter of priority to allow the full and effective approximation to the MRR. More in depth, it identifies and analyses the current shortcomings in terms of Institutional regulatory framework and legal aspects currently not covered/not fully covered by national NI legislation. It shall be underlined that, in order to achieve the desired goal of alignment to MRR, these shall be tackled in parallel to the more technical issues identified in section 2 above.77

As stated more than once in this Report, Turkey has put in place the regulatory framework to ratify the UNFCCC and KP.78It formally designated the national competent authorities for NCs, BRs (MoEU) and NI (TurkStat) by means of a dedicated legal basis. While the detailed regulatory framework for NCs and BRs concrete development is still lacking, the one regarding NI is at a more advanced stage. In fact, the complex, several activities pertaining NI preparation and management are allocated to the various line Ministries and entities pursuant OSP Section 6, based on Law on Statistics. Further rules are provided by the CCAMCB Decisions taken in May 2014, establishing its WGs and adopting the QA/QC Plan.

Despite this formal regulatory framework in force, some legal and Institutional gaps persist. The most crucial emerging issues are:

1. The lack of a suitable legal basis to consolidate and strengthen the authority of the CCAMCB (gap affecting Planning stage);

2. The lack of concrete regulation for the functioning of the CCAMCB WGs and for the implementation of their tasks (sectors currently not regulated neither by the Directive on Working Principles of CCAMCB creating the WGs nor by Annex II‐Decision 2014/01 setting their competences), (gap affecting Planning and Preparation stages); and

Addressing these two major gaps would be undoubtedly beneficial for the robustness of the current Institutional framework..

Moreover, the full implementation and operation of the CCAMCB WGs’ would further strengthen the current level of interaction among the several line entities participating to NI preparation.

It can be underlined, however, that there is a useful Institutional background in place offering great potentials to overcome the current barriers. Indeed, the CCAMCB provides a valuable institutional asset to be further exploited: established within the MoEU which is responsible for environmental and climate change issues at governmental level, its composition ensures that all entities involved in NI are represented and expertise is provided at the highest ranks. Moreover, it is charged with relevant comprehensive tasks ranging from mitigation and adaptation to GHG inventory, air management and awareness raising. Therefore, given its great potential, the Board should be enhanced and strengthened in its coordinating, strategic decision making and operative role. In order to achieve this objective, its

76 To this respect, please note that Turkey tasked a study on projections, sectorial mitigation potentials and cost analyses through CCAMCB Decision

2015/01 dated 9/04/2015. A Commission of experts submitted the outcomes of the study to the Board on 7 July 2015 which used it as a basis for the elaboration of the Country’s INDC. 77 Please note that the MRR sets obligations for EU Member States only. Therefore, Turkey shall concretely implement these obligations once the

Accession Process will be completed and full membership will be achieved. However, the LTI analysis, gaps to be filled and recommendations on the next steps to be performed included, is based on the assumption that Turkey is called to transpose the MRR and align its legal system to it as a necessary condition for EU Accession (looking forward and prior to membership achievement) in the broader context of approximation of its national legal system to the entire EU Acquis. 78 See Chapter 2 of this Report.




establishment, powers and authority should be endorsed by a more suitable legal basis than the current one. To this respect, it shall be recalled that the Board was set up and subsequently amended by virtue of Prime Minister Circulars79which are not provided with the legal force of laws, decrees or equivalent legal acts. The non‐legislative nature of the act establishing the Board also affects its decisions which do not have the legal force of a proper legislative act, eventually threatening their implementation and enforcement and posing serious challenges in terms of legal acceptability by the addresses. As a result, measures and decisions taken by the Board, which indeed are expected to cover relevant climate change and air management areas and need to be promptly introduced in the national legal system, may be significantly delayed in their application and jeopardized in their objectives. Therefore, it would be highly advisable to fine‐tuning the role and power of the Board with a more suitable legal basis, strengthening the legal force of its decisions accordingly.

Secondly, more clarity should be brought in the regulation of CCAMCB WGs 1‐Mitigation, 3‐GHG Inventory and 7‐Air Management duties. In detail, their concrete tasks (what the tasks specifically consist of and how they will be implemented in practice) and schedule should be further elaborated. Moreover, taking into account that, as a rule, the WGs shall meet twice a year, it should be clarified how their tasks will be concretely implemented and coordinated with the activities of the relevant line Ministries and entities dealing with the same topics on a more continuous basis. Surely, once fully developed and adopted, the WGs work programmes required by the Directive on Working Principles (article 13) will deal with these aspects bringing more legal certainty.

Thirdly, taking into consideration the crosscutting nature of the areas under their competence, the relationship among the WGs themselves should also be better regulated. The need to ensure a higher degree of interinstitutional coordination might be satisfied by means of dedicated Memorandum of Understanding. Another option, requiring a smoother procedure and less legislative efforts, would be introducing systematic/periodic reporting of progresses achieved in the WGs work programmes. This would meaningfully contribute to: streamlining and creating efficient synergies within WGs and better defining the implementation and schedule of their duties (also clarifying the coordination with line ministries the members of the WGs belong to).80

Overall, an improved legal basis for the Board, together with a clearer regulation, furthering at the operative level the general legal framework already in place at macro level, would bring significant beneficial effects on efficiency and reliability in implementation of the NI cycle at the same time enhancing TACCC achievement. In parallel, more clarity in distribution of roles and responsibilities, as well as in their implementation, would also promote a more active engagement of line entities involved that would mutually benefit from an improved, streamlined system.

Another major Institutional concern is related to the scarcity of human resources currently available and dedicated to NI preparation and management, with few people in each Ministry dealing with NI development in addition to other several non‐NI related commitments and tasks. The Country should consider the possibility to enlarge the current staffing, within borders allowed by budgetary implications. More skilled and wider staff, properly interacting in respective roles and activities, would definitively ensure quality objectives achievement.

In addition to the aforementioned gaps, three other relevant legal issues emerge, regarding MRR requirements currently lacking into the Turkish legal system:

1. The designation of a national Authority responsible for reporting to the EU Commission consistently with duties set in articles 7.1 (reporting on yearly NI by 15 January), 7.3 (reporting on yearly NIR by 15 March), 13 (biennially reporting on PaMs), 14 (biennially reporting on Projections) and 15 (reporting on National Adaptation Plans every 4 years) as well as on the progresses made in achieving UNFCCC goals and in implementing low‐carbon development strategies;

2. The establishment of modalities and procedures to fulfil the aforementioned reporting duties towards the EU Commission;

3. The setting up of modalities and procedures to communicate climate change information to the public according to articles 13.3, 14.4.

These legal requirements shall be introduced into the Turkish legal system via the legislation transpositing MRR.

79 See Chapter 2 paragraph 2.2.

80 Please note that at the time of writing WG3‐GHG Inventory, adopted its work plan under TurkStat coordination and foresees to implement it

consistently with the QA/QC work flow schedule for NI development. In this context, WG3 will convene several meetings throughout the year.




Besides the legal and institutional aspects analysed so far, it shall be underlined that most of the Planning‐Preparation and Management weaknesses were due to other two crucial factors. Though not genuinely of legal nature, both of them are strictly linked to Institutional and legal gap assessment, and left room to inconsistencies, incompleteness and inaccuracy in reporting:

1. The lack of specific expertise of the staff newly involved (neither systematic training for the beginners nor updated trainings for the staff are provided on a systematic basis); and

2. The lack of an effective implementation of the QA/QC Plan, which, in fact, as already pointed out above, due to its recent adoption, is in a “pilot” implementation phase that cannot allow any assessment on its effectiveness yet.

However, both conditionalities are currently being addressed. In fact, the need to improve local know‐how is being satisfied by means of the Training Programmes implemented under Components 2 and 3 of this project, aiming at building and enhancing national technical capacities with regard to GHG Inventory and NCs‐BRs. More in detail, the Training Programme developed for the benefit of the beneficiary and stakeholders has been submitted within the TANA (Training And Assistance Needs Analysis) and On‐the‐Job training programme Reports for Components 2 and 3 delivered on September 2015. While, with regard to QA/QC procedures, as already pointed out in Chapter 2 of this Report, the CCAMCB recently adopted the QA/QC Plan, due to be implemented from 2015. Indeed, the NI due in 2016 will be a real first time testbed for the Plan and the staff involved would likely be in need of support to implement its several, engaging yet fundamental activities.

An overall assessment of the gaps and LTI conditionalities to be addressed is provided in the following paragraph.

3.3. Overall assessment

Since the entry into force of the UNFCCC and KP, in 2004 and 2009 respectively, Turkey has progressively moved several steps forward the alignment of its national legal and Institutional system to the International and EU relevant Acquis. In this context, a national focal point for NI has been appointed and public/private line entities have been mobilized and charged with specific preparatory and management duties. Furthermore, the establishment of the CCAMCB, the adoption of a QA/QC Plan (by the Board) and of a national Monitoring, Verification and Reporting (MRV) legislation (by the MoEU)81represent remarkable milestones. Indeed, the completion of the MRV system and its implementation will significantly enhance the quality and quantity of data available to entities involved in NI preparation. In addition, although not always timely, the Country always fulfilled its information and reporting duties under articles 4 and 12 UNFCCC, showing active engagement in complying with its obligations.

However, further efforts are required for a fully‐fledged NI system satisfying the UNFCCC and EU requirements.82 The comparative analysis of the current national state of art with the International and EU models conveys the perception that a lot of improvements have been achieved in terms of formal adoption of legislative acts but still many relevant gaps persist in terms of concrete implementation and enforcement of the norms. Indeed, these shortcomings seriously affected clarity and coordination in the fulfilment of the duties by the various line entities involved, ultimately generating hurdles in reaching NI quality objectives (TACCC). Similar barriers affect NC state of art.

Overall, according to the findings of the LTI analysis performed in paragraphs 2.1, 2.2 above, the most critical areas to be addressed as a matter of priority for a full and effective transposition and implementation of MRR are: LEGAL and INSTITUTIONAL CONDITIONALITIES:

Strengthening of current Institutional asset (in particular with regard to CCAMCB and related WGs);

Providing the CCAMCB with a more definitive, suitable legal basis;

Streamlining of competences (by virtue of further primary and secondary legislation);

81 See Turkish Regulation on Monitoring of GHG Emissions in Official Gazette no.29003 dated 17/05/2014, Communiqué on Monitoring and

Reporting of GHG Emissions in Official Gazette no.29068 dated 22/07/2014 and Communiqué on Verification of GHG Reporting and Authorization of Verification Bodies in Official Gazette no.29314 dated 01/04/2015. 82 To this respect, see EU Commission Progress Report on Turkey‐2014 COM(2014) 700 final, Chapter XXVII, pages 69 ss, stating: “Turkey has made

some progress in aligning legislation in the fields of environment and climate change, whereas enforcement remains weak. Better complementarity needs to be found between Ministry for Environment and other concerned ministries regarding the environment, climate and development agendas. Further work is needed to strengthen cooperation and coordination between various institutions with responsibilities in the fields of environment and climate change. Preparations in the areas of environment and climate change are still at an early stage”.




Better regulation of roles and concrete implementation of tasks (by means of secondary implementing legislation);

Better interinstitutional coordination and enhanced communication among entities involved (by means of dedicated MoUs/CCAMCB Decisions);

Ensuring data availability to National competent Authorities;

Designation of national focal point and adoption of modalities and procedures to fulfil the monitoring, information and communication duties towards the EU Commission according to MRR articles 7, 12, 13, 14;

Increasing current staffing. TECHNICAL ISSUES:

Enhancing current technical capacities and expertise (by means of highly qualified training programmes);

Readdressing current gaps and needs during preparation stage especially related to: key category analysis, collection of AD, development of national specific EFs, choice of calculation method, uncertainty analysis and systematic QC (by means of highly qualified training programmes and implementation of QA/QC Plan);

Ensuring effective implementation of the recent QA/QC Plan in line with UNFCCC‐IPCC guidelines;

Improving documentation and archiving system.

Taking into account the findings of this LTI analysis, the actions needed to fill the gaps are outlined in Table 6 below with reference to the three NI stages and including the desired outcomes. Table 6: Priority actions and desired outcomes to overcome NI gaps83

ACTIONS NEEDED DESIRED OUTCOMES

NATIONAL INVENTORY PLANNING

Streamlining of Institutional competences;

Strengthening of current Institutional asset and their legal basis;

Better regulation of roles and concrete implementation of tasks;

Better interinstitutional coordination and enhanced communication among entities involved;

Ensuring NI authorities access to data and information;

Increasing current staffing

More efficient and clear allocation of duties;

Better exploitation of CCAMCB and related WGs potential;

More efficient implementation of tasks;

Improved interinstitutional engagement and enhanced synergies in tasks compliance;

Lowered workload and improved performances

NATIONAL INVENTORY PREPARATION

Enhancing current technical capacities and expertise;

Readdressing current gaps and needs during preparation stage;

Ensuring implementation of robust MRV system in place;

Ensuring effective implementation of the recent QA/QC Plan in line with UNFCCC‐IPCC Guidelines

More skilled personnel providing better performances;

Improving overall and specific NI quality;

Achieving TACCC





NATIONAL INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

Improving documentation and archiving system

Building and maintaining Institutional memory;

Improving following NIs

NATIONAL COMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT

Designation of national focal point and adoption of modalities and procedures to fulfil the monitoring, information and communication duties towards the EU Commission according to MRR articles 7, 12, 13, 14;

Building the capacities to develop PaMs and Projections

Efficient and clear implementation of relevant MRR duties;

More skills in PaMs and Projection reporting

3.4. SWOT Analysis

Notably, the SWOT analysis aims at identifying the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of a system. More in detail, strengths are positive internal factors of the system, providing positive foundations for the future. On the contrary, the weaknesses are negative internal elements of the system, needing key improvements. Opportunities are the external positive possibilities which the system can benefit from, in order to mitigate/delete weaknesses while, finally, threats are external difficulties, impediments or limitations which can prevent or impede the achievement of the targeted improvements. SWOT analysis is used, inter alia, for an ex ante evaluation of the advantageous and disadvantageous factors affecting the system, in order to identify the best strategy to achieve the desired outcome/s.

In our case, the SWOT analysis represents a bridge from the LTI analysis to the Recommendations on the next desirable steps. More in detail, starting from the gaps and needs identified in the LTI assessment, it focuses on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the current Turkish NI system and paves the way for the most suitable recommendations (subsequently spelled out in Chapter 4). The overall goal is to identify the measures to minimize the weaknesses and threats and enhance the strengths and opportunities.

On these grounds, strongly building on the findings of the LTI analysis and taking into consideration Component 1 ultimate objective, namely supporting the effective transposition and implementation of MRR, the following Table sketches the SWOT analysis: Table 7: SWOT Analysis84

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

Legal basis for general Institutional framework in place;

General Institutional framework for NI in place; Legal basis to further NI Institutional framework

in place; Strong valuable Institutional asset in place

(CCAMCB and related specialized WGs); Climate change responsibilities and strategic

planning dealt with at an advanced Institutional stage (CCAMCB; Climate Change Dept. within MoEU DG Environmental Management);

Current legal basis not always suitable;

Uncertainties surrounding legal force of CCAMCB measures;

Gaps of detailed Institutional regulatory framework for CCAMCB;

Lack of implementation and effective functioning affecting some of the CCAMCB WGs;

Implementation of roles and responsibilities within WGs not clearly defined at detailed level (working programmes not fully adopted yet);





Institutional potentials likely to be enhanced and exploited in place;

Framework capacities and expertise in place likely to be enhanced;

Good knowledge of NI, NCs overall structure and aim;

Good knowledge of climate change issues; Good level of awareness of Country’s

commitments and duties within line entities; Active Institutional involvement; Proactive will from line entities; High degree of awareness of own

responsibilities within line entities; Effective QA/QC Plan recently adopted

Insufficient staffing and high workloads; Gaps of specific technical expertise with regard

to several preparation activities (training needs);

Lack of fully fledged Documentation and Archiving system (lack of Institutional memory);

Likely difficulties in first time implementation of QA/QC Plan from 2015 onwards;

Lack of designated national focal point to implement monitoring, reporting and information duties towards EU Commission

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

Technical support from International and EU cooperation projects;

Financial support from International Community;

Impetus given by international momentum for climate change talks;

Impetus given by commitments within EU Accession Process;

Support and interaction coming from synergies with interrelated topics and Ministries;

Crucial role of climate change issues for the development of the Country;

Paramount role of MoEU in climate change sector

Financial constraints likely to hinder staffing increase;

Difficulties in building and maintaining institutional capacities;

Possible long timeframes and burdensome procedures to adopt legislative improvements needed;

Engaging cross sectoral strategic planning and thinking required;

Weak public/private consensus surrounding climate change issues if overriding priorities from other sectors occur;

Loss of momentum once project concluded

A brief explanation of the SWOT analysis performed in Table 7 above is hereby provided:

STRENGTHS:

The Country has a general good Institutional framework already in place, providing a valuable basis likely to achieve significant improvements: as underlined more than once in this Report, the MoEU plays a paramount role in climate change issues and the CCAMCB, together with its sector‐focused WGs, may strengthen and improve the progresses of the Country with regard to NI, NCs and BRs development (including the capacity to conceive and propose mitigation PaMs). In parallel, TurkStat holds a relevant framework knowledge in NI compilation and related activities which can be easily improved. Part of this Institutional structure (TurkStat and MoEU) is already legitimate by virtue of valid legal basis (Law On Environment, Law on Statistic, OSP) while other may be improved (CCAMCB set up by means of Circulars of Prime Minister). However, the potentials for Institutional meaningful improvements and furtherance (to devise and regulate more in detail the NI Institutional system and implementation) are in place. Moreover, the line entities involved show active involvement and will to perform their duties, as well a remarkable awareness of both Countries pledges towards UNFCCC‐EU and of the duties within their own organization. In parallel, there seems to be a good knowledge of climate change issues as well as NI, NCs and BRs structure, contents and purpose, facilitating the opportunities to strengthening the current know how. Finally, decisive progresses may be brought by the implementation, from 2015, of the QA/QC Plan recently adopted in line with UNFCCC and IPCC




requirements. This may represent a great achievement for the Country, likely to spread positive outcomes and improvements all over the NI development stages.

WEAKNESSES:

One of the major current weaknesses is the gap of a suitable/detailed Institutional regulatory framework. In fact, the highly qualified and potentially powerful Institutional framework described above as one of the most relevant strengths of the current system (CCAMCB and related WGs) is currently regulated at a non suitable level.

More in detail, it is featured by a non‐suitable legal basis (Prime Minister Circular instead of Law or Decree) with negative spill overs on the legal force of the Board’s decisions. The main negative consequence of the non‐sufficiently detailed regulatory framework is the delay of CCAMCB WGs effective functioning and concrete implementation (members of some of the newly established WGs act individually within their Ministries/Agencies but are not fully operative yet within the WGs).

Indeed, the regulatory framework related to NI Planning, currently envisaged in the OSP and in the QA/QC, distributing the preparation activities among the line entities involved, should be integrated and consolidated by ensuring coordination and consistency with the CCAMCB one, once formalized by a proper legal basis.

Secondly, but not less important, regarding Preparation stage, current staff carrying out NI activities is insufficient and overloaded. Moreover, it shows the need of more systematic training, especially for the entities and personnel newly involved in NI development or not fully familiar yet with the topic.

The Management stage, mainly lacks of a fully‐fledged Documentation and Archiving system with consequent lack of Institutional memory and hurdles in improving following NIs. With regard to the QA/QC Plan which, similarly to the general Institutional framework, represents one of the most striking flagships of the current system, it shall be noted that there could be difficulties in its first time implementation. Therefore, implementing entities should receive support in order to avoid turning this potential strength into a concrete weaknesses. Finally, the system currently lacks a designated national focal point to implement monitoring, reporting and information duties towards EU Commission and this legislative gap should be fulfilled by ad hoc legal acts.

OPPORTUNITIES:

The major opportunity for the Country to balance gaps and threats and to enhance strengths of the system is represented by the multifaceted support coming from International and EU programmes. Such kind of support may be legal and technical (mainly coming from development assistance projects) but also of financial nature. As a result, national capacities may be widely improved in terms of know‐how, national legal system may be ameliorated and concrete actions and measures can be concretely carried out through tailor made financial aid. Moreover, the current attention of the International Community towards climate change issues, both within and outside the UNFCCC negotiations, may bring positive impetus to the Country to speed up its process of reforms and improvements. On the same token, the Country’s approximation commitments within EU Accession Process may represent a positive driver to fulfil the gaps. Shifting to the national level, fruitful impacts may come from line Ministries. Indeed, climate change is a real cross cutting topic, requiring interaction and coordination among MoEU (primarily responsible for the sector) and several other Ministries (which, in fact, are involved in NI activities). These are all actively interested in promoting synergies to create opportunities to overcome weaknesses and enhance the strengths, in order to achieve mutual beneficial effects. In this context, given its paramount role in climate change sector, the MoEU is decisive to stimulate synergies and raise necessary awareness. Finally, but certainly linked to this aspect, communicating to the public a thorough understanding of the strategic role of climate change issues for the development of the Country represents a relevant opportunity to minimize the shortcomings.

THREATS:

Gaps and needs to align national system to MRR require first and foremost some legislative measures. In this context, one of the major threats is represented by the possible long timeframes and burdensome procedures to adopt the legislative improvements needed. This may imperil a prompt reaction to gap filling and may allow gaps to persist for a long time in the system, eventually delaying the progresses expected/planned. Moreover, as underpinned in the Threats section, given its cross cutting nature and implications, climate change regulation requires an engaging, “integrated” strategic planning and thinking. This can prove to be difficult and challenging to implement and requires




strong synergies among line ministries and long term planning. Another relevant threat is represented by the financial constraints likely to hinder staffing increase, consequently threatening improvements in NI preparation and management. More in general, technical, financial and management difficulties may arise in building and maintaining institutional capacities. This might be particularly true once technical aid projects are concluded and a loss of momentum might occur. Finally, taking into consideration the relevant role played by public/private awareness and consensus to stimulate improvement actions in one sector, if overriding priorities from other sectors supervene, climate change issues (and related needs) may be set aside.

The following steps to ensure approximation to the MRR should enhance and develop the strengths at the same time maximizing the opportunities as means to overcome the barriers posed by the weaknesses and avoid threats’ effects.

4. Conclusions and Recommendations

4.1. Conclusions

This Report aims at providing a thorough LTI analysis of the current Turkish NI system in order to identify the legal and institutional priorities to be addressed for an effective alignment with MRR.

To this end, recalling the implied link between the International and EU levels, it starts by identifying and analysing the current UNFCCC and EU requirements for NI systems (and, briefly, NCs and BRs). Then it provides a picture of the current state of art of the Turkish legal and institutional framework and, subsequently, performs a comparative analysis of this system with the International and EU models. Further on, the Country’s gaps and needs are detected and analysed against the background International‐EU and national analysis. In such a context, the SWOT analysis is performed to focus on national system’s strengths‐weaknesses‐opportunities‐threats. This allows the implementation of a strategic approach in developing the conclusions and final recommendations to enhance the current strengths and opportunities and overcome the weaknesses and threats.

Overall, the LTI analysis performed shows that since the ratification of the UNFCCC (in 2004) and KP (in 2009) the Country made significant progresses in the implementation of its duties. Up to date, a framework national system for estimation of GHG emissions and removals has been set up according to article 5 KP and information and reporting commitments pursuant articles 4 and 12 UNFCCC are fulfilled. More in detail, the Country set up a rather centralized governance model, where GHG NI overall responsibilities have been allocated to TurkStat (also serving as national focal point for NI submission to UNFCCC Secretariat) and preparation activities have been distributed among line ministries involved. Furthermore, the NI system recently reached a rather advanced stage through the establishment of a CCAMCB within MoEU, provided with 7 WGs, 3 of which specifically dealing with mitigation, GHG inventory and adaptation. Remarkably, in 2014 a QA/QC Plan has been adopted by the Board with the view to improve NI from 2015 onwards and fill most of the current technical and preparation gaps. In parallel, the Country recently adopted a MRV regulatory framework, currently being furthered, to be applied from 2015 which should enhance the quality and quantity of data available for NI preparation.

As far as NCs are concerned, the MoEU is the responsible authority while the PaMs are envisaged primarily according to the strategic, cross sectoral planning provided by the 10th Development Plan and the Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan.

However, despite its remarkable progresses, the NI arrangements are still lacking of some relevant legal, technical and institutional elements, preventing the full and effective transposition and implementation of MRR.

These gaps affect all of the three stages of NI development, namely Planning‐Preparation and Management, and hinder the full achievement of quality objectives (TACCC) prescribed at UNFCCC as well as EU level.

First of all, with regard to Planning, better and more detailed regulation is needed with regard to CCAMCB establishment, authority and powers as well as its WGs functioning and concrete implementation of tasks. This priority action would also bring beneficial effects on current level of interinstitutional coordination, enhancing the opportunities of more continuous collaboration and dialogue among line entities withing the CCAMCB WGs.




In addition, increase of staffing is needed to deal in a more systematic, complete and consistent way with the challenging NI activities. While, focusing on NCs and BRs, a national focal point to fulfil monitoring, reporting and communication duties towards the EU Commission shall be appointed. Furthermore, capacities to devise PaMs and make projections should be enhanced.

Secondly, as far as Preparation is concerned, one of the major cruxes is represented by the need to improve NI capacities and expertise through tailor made technical trainings.

Most of the shortcomings shown so far were due to the lack of a well‐shaped QA/QC Plan, which, however, was finally adopted by the CCAMCB in 2014. Though entered into force too recently to allow any kind of assessment on its fruitfulness (it is being applied starting from 2015 for 2016 onwards NI submission), it may overcome many of the past/current gaps and failures to achieve quality objectives. However, whether the expected positive outcomes will be achieved largely depends on the national capacities of full and correct implementation of the engaging activities envisaged in the Plan.

Finally, with respect to Management, a fully‐fledged documentation and archiving system is lacking. As a result, both institutional memory and expected NI improvements are seriously damaged. However, the Country is planning to improve this matter of facts by setting up a national NI web portal and centralized archiving system which will hopefully be operative soon.

To sum up, the Country is showing a strong will to overcome the barriers to approximate its national system to the UNFCCC and EU GHG emissions monitoring and reporting requirements. The challenges are manifold and engaging, and involve not only the MoEU but all the line entities contributing to NI and NC development. The next steps should take into utmost consideration the current strengths of the system and catch the beneficial effects of the external opportunities, to overcome the weaknesses and minimize the threats. In such a context, the key words should be: ENHANCING, STRENGTHENING and FURTHERING (national regulatory and Institutional framework) ‐ and IMPROVING (technical capacities). A stronger, clearer, more skilled national system would definitively achieve quality objectives (TACCC).

Based on these assumptions and on the findings of the analysis performed in Chapters 1‐2‐3 of this Report, the following paragraph provides some recommendations on the next steps to progress on the alignment to the MRR.

4.2. The way ahead: final suggested recommendations

The MRR shall be first of all formally transposed into the national legal system by means of a suitable legal act, providing the establishment and implementation of a national system ensuring TACCC in reporting the GHG emissions and removals as well as the information on PaMs and projections. In such a context, the current state of art related to planning and preparation activities should be streamlined and enhanced.

To this end, the following actions are recommended to the Country to make significant progresses in the approximation to the MRR:

NI PLANNING:

Roles and responsibilities should be set and distributed among the existing institutional framework (to be enhanced and further regulated). The proliferation of additional bodies and entities should be avoided in order not to congest the system and hinder a streamlined, efficient implementation of tasks.

The current Institutional system should be furthered and strengthened.

Given its valuable institutional potential, tasks, authority and composition, the CCAMCB should be enhanced. Therefore, its establishment and powers should receive a more formal and high ranked legislative endorsement through a suitable legal basis providing stronger legal force than the current one. To this end, an amendment to the current Law establishing the MoEU could be a viable option. Alternatively, an ad hoc Law or Decree may be suitable to reach the objective.

In parallel, given the relevance of their scope and topics covered, the CCAMCB decisions and measures should be recognized a stronger legal force and applicability. The legal act providing legal basis to the Board should regulate this issue accordingly.

The concrete functioning of the CCAMCB WGs should be clarified and made more operational to bring effectiveness to the implementation of their duties. In this context, priority should be given to tasks aimed at




contribution to developing PaMs (WG1‐Mitigation), compiling GHG NI (WG3‐GHG Inventory), setting up adaptation measures (WG2‐Adaptation) and developing national EFs (WG7‐Air Management). This result may be achieved by means of secondary implementing legislation/Decisions of the Board. In parallel, the development of WGs working programmes according to the Directive on Working Principles article 13 should be ensured as a high priority.

The current legal basis for NI system (mainly represented by the OSP based on Law on Statistics and by CCAMCB Decision of 2009 appointing TurkStat as national focal point) should be consolidated and integrated as an authomatic effect of the adoption of a stronger and more suitable legal basis for CCAMCB.

Interinstitutional coordination should be kept, to achieve completeness and consistency of activities and results. Cooperation and coordination should be ensured both among CCAMCB WGs and line ministries. In particular, communication and dialogue between line entities should be promoted on a continuous basis (in particular with regard to schedules and deadlines to provide information and data). This result may be achieved by means of MoU between the entities involved and/or detailed regulatory framework furthering the current legislative state of art (Law on Statistic‐OSP‐CCAMCB Decisions). It may be deemed sufficient to recognize mutual cooperation and coordination among line entities involved as a general principle or provide for systematic reporting of results and experience by the WGs.

A national focal point to implement the information, monitoring and reporting duties towards the EU Commission according to articles 7.1, 12, 13 and 14 of the MRR should be appointed. This result may be achieved by means of national legislation transposing the MRR.

Currently, there is no need of final approval of NI before its submission to UNFCCC Secretariat. Considering the introduction of a formal but streamlined procedure for its approval (better by WG3, ensuring the participation of MoEU) would be advisable.

A more active engagement of line entities involved in NI development should be promoted by awareness raising and clearer, coordinated, more detailed distribution of tasks.

Current staffing should be increased to ensure a more sustainable distribution of workloads and a more systematic and consistent approach to NI activities, consistently with budget availability.

National competent Authority access to NI data and information should be ensured and, where not foreseen, introduced.

Climate change issues should be kept at the top on national agenda, also by promoting awareness raising and making NI and related information publicly available. This result may be achieved by efficiently allocating management roles and promoting awareness campaigns.

NI PREPARATION:

Technical capacity building should be ensured through tailor made trainings. The increase of national know how and expertise on a more systematic, continuous basis, would definitively contribute to quality objectives achievement.

The recently adopted QA/QC Plan should be diligently implemented as a matter of priority to remedy to past/current gaps and failures.

NI MANAGEMENT:

A fully fledged documentation and archiving system should be established.

QA/QC Plan should be implemented and, with regard to reporting and improving, utmost attention should be given to addressing the issues raised in the QA and by international reviewers.

NC DEVELOPMENT:

National focal point for reporting and communication duties towards EU Commission should be appointed by the law transposing MRR (see Planning above).

National capacities to develop PaMs, projections and PaMs costs and effects should be enhanced through appropriate training programmes.

Concluding, these recommendations should provide a useful basis paving the way to the forthcoming activities of Component 1, aiming firstly at devising the most suitable Institutional option for NI and afterwards at developing an Action Plan finally leading to the elaboration of a draft legislation to align national legal system to MRR.




LIST OF DOCUMENTS AND LEGISLATIVE SOURCES International sources: UN Framework Convention on Climate Change; Kyoto Protocol; 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories; IPCC Good Practice Guidance and Uncertainty Management in National GHG Inventories; IPCC Good Practice Guidance for LULUCF; FCCC/ARR/2014/TUR (UNFCCC ERT Report on Turkish NI 2014); FCCC/IDR.5/TUR (UNFCCC ERT Report on Turkish 5th NC); FCCC/CP/1999/6; FCCC/CP/2000/5/Add.1 COP and CMP Decisions: 26/CP.7; 1/CP.16; 20/CP.7, 18/CP.8 and 14/CP.11 as revised by 24/CP.19; 4/CP.5; 2/CP.17; 19/CMP.1 EU sources: Regulation (EU) no. 525/2013 of The European Parliament and of the Council on a mechanism for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and for reporting other information at national and Union level relevant to climate change and repealing Decision No 280/2004/EC; Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 749/2014 on structure, format, submission processes and review of information reported by Member States pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council; Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 666/2014 establishing substantive requirements for a Union inventory system and taking into account changes in the global warming potentials and internationally agreed inventory guidelines pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council; Commission Regulation (EU) No 601/2012 on the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council; Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on energy statistics; Commission Regulation (EU) No 147/2013 amending Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on energy statistics, as regards the implementation of updates for the monthly and annual energy statistics; Commission Staff Working Document, Elements of the Union greenhouse gas inventory system and the Quality Assurance and Control (QA/QC) programme‐ Brussels, 12.8.2013 SWD(2013) 308 final Turkish sources: Law on Environment 2872/1983; Law Decree on Organization and Tasks of Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation no. 644/2011; Law on Statistic no. 5429/2005; Official Statistic Programme 2012‐2016;




Law no. 4990/2003 on ratification of the UNFCCC; Law no. 5836/2009 on ratification of the KP; Regulation on Monitoring of Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Communique on Monitoring of Greenhouse Gas Emissions; “Monitoring transposition and implementation of the EU environmental acquis”, Turkey Implementation Questionnaire, Year 17 (2014) on Regulation no. 525/2013; Circular of the Prime Minister 2001/2; Circular of the Prime Minister no. 2010/18 and 2012/2; Circular of the of the Prime Minister no.2012/22; Circular of the Prime Minister no.2013/11. Turkey’s National Inventory Report 2014; Turkey’s Fifth National Communication under the UNFCCC; Directive on Working Principles and Procedures of CCAMCB‐ Annex I of CCAMCB Decision adopted by meeting no.2014/1 dated 07/05/2014; Annex II of CCAMCB Decision adopted by meeting no.2014/1 dated 07/05/2014 establishing the CCAMCB WGs; QA/QC Plan‐Annex III of CCAMCB Decision 2014/1 dated 07/05/2014 Draft F Gases Regulation; National Inventory System (presentation by TurkStat); Republic of Turkey Climate Change Strategy 2010‐2020; Turkey’s National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan; Climate Change Action Plan 2011‐2023.

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