EMPOWER II project supports Thailand’s GHG inventory and mitigation estimation

From 18-20 March 2026, GIZ, through the Empowering Thailand’s Department of Climate Change and Environmentphase II (EMPOWER II)  project, in collaboration with the Department of Climate Change and Environment (DCCE) and the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organisation (Public Organisation) (TGO), organised a workshop entitled ‘Activity Data (AD) Reporting and Quality Assurance for the Preparation of Thailand’s Sectoral Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Mitigation Outcomes’ to enhance understanding of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigation calculations among relevant agencies, and to prepare them for reporting AD for the year 2024 to the DCCE.

This annual workshop marks the start of the AD collection process, which is essential for the preparation of the national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory and the assessment of the country’s GHG mitigation actions. A total of 211 participants attended, representing data-owning agencies and sectoral focal point agencies across five key sectors: Energy, Industrial Processes and Product Use (IPPU), Waste, Agriculture, and Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF).

The workshop aimed to provide clarification and enhance understanding of GHG accounting principles, detailed requirements of AD used in calculations, and procedures for reporting AD through the GHG Thailand Reporting Platform and the Thailand NDC Tracking Platform. The reported information will contribute to both the national GHG inventory and the assessment of mitigation progress, forming a key component of Thailand’s Second Biennial Transparency Report (Thailand’s BTR2), submitted in line with international climate change frameworks.

During the workshop, representatives from the DCCE who had completed the Training of Trainers (ToT) programme delivered foundational knowledge on GHG inventory development, including calculation methodologies, data quality assurance and procedures for reporting AD through the GHG Thailand Reporting Platform to ensure that data are reported accurately, completely and in line with international standards under the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (2006 IPCC Guidelines). In addition, representatives from the TGO and DCCE presented methodologies to assess GHG mitigation activities through the Thailand NDC Tracking Platform, and discussed improvements to BTR reporting based on recommendations from the IPCC Technical Expert Review Team (TERT) following the submission of Thailand’s first BTR.

Furthermore, the workshop provided an important platform for technical discussions between the DCCE and data-owning agencies to assess the consistency between existing national AD with the 2006 IPCC Guidelines across Tier 1 (default), Tier 2 (intermediate country-specific) and Tier 3 (advanced country-specific) methodologies. It was emphasised that advancing to higher-tier methodologies should not be the sole objective; rather, it is essential to strike a balance between scientific accuracy, data availability, practicality and the overall benefits within Thailand’s national context.