Vanuatu's Second National Communication to the UNFCCC

The Vanuatu’s Inventory for Greenhouse Gases has been calculated for the base year 2000 using the revised 1996 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. The UNFCCC software “Non Annex1 National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Software, Version 1.3.3” has been used for the estimation of GHG. Sectoral data for GHG estimation was compiled from various sources primarily using national data collected from annual reports, statistical reports, studies and brochures of related department/ institutions. In year 2000, the total GHG emissions by sources and removals by sink for Vanuatu was 585.39Gg CO2eq (excluding removals); which comprises of 70.34Gg CO2e from Energy; 502.83Gg CO2e from Agriculture and 12.21Gg CO2e from Waste Sector. Emissions from per fluorocarbons (PFCs), hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) in Vanuatu are negligible, as the products containing these gases are not produced in the country. CO2 sequestration by the forestry and land use sector in year 2000 amounted to 7,913.16Gg CO2e. Total GHG emissions, including FOLU, are estimated to be (-) 7327.77Gg CO2e, indicating that Vanuatu is a net sinks for GHG emissions.Nearly 99% of GHG emissions in Vanuatu come from five activities: energy, transport, livestock, N2O from agriculture soils and waste. The largest contributor to GHG emissions in year 2000 was livestock Second National Communication Report 6 sector amounting to 56.5% of total GHG emissions. The next biggest contributor was N2O from agriculture soils with 29.4% of GHG emissions followed by transport sector which contributed to 5.9% of total emissions. Greenhouse gases covered in this analysis include CO2, CH4 and N2O are estimated to be 12% CO2, 31% N2O and 57% CH4 of the total GHG emissions.In 2000, Vanuatu emitted 69.16Gg CO2e which is a 26% increase since the first inventory, which was published in 1999 and covered emissions for base year 1994. The energy sector is the main source of CO2 emissions and mainly due to combustion of fossil fuel. Net CH4 emissions in Vanuatu are estimated to be 15.85Gg and have increased by 43.1% from the year 1994 mainly due to increased livestock farming and improper waste management. Net N2O emissions in Vanuatu are estimated to be 0.58Gg which translates to 31% of total GHG emissions in 2000 mainly from agriculture sector. Emissions from the AFOLU sector, per-fluorocarbons (PFCs), hydro-fluorocarbons (HFCs) and Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) were not considered in the 2000 GHG inventory.The GHG emission for Vanuatu for the year 2005 and 2010 has also been calculated based on the similar data source and methodology used for estimation of GHG emissions for year 2000. The quantity of CO2 emissions increased from 585.39G gCO2e in 2000 to 720.66Gg CO2e in 2010.