Dubai, 10 March 2016 – United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence (DCCE) have signed an agreement to develop National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Systems (NIS) for Oman and Kuwait, helping these countries to monitor progress towards the international climate targets agreed in Paris, in December.

Signed by Ivano Iannelli, CEO of Dubai Carbon and Iyad Abumoghli, Director and Regional Representative of UNEP, the agreement also allows for future collaboration in other Gulf Countries.

UNEP Regional Representative in West Asia, H.E. Dr. Iyad Abumoghli, said: “This Memorandum of Understanding represents a special and significant commitment to engage and establish the best possible solutions to develop climate change strategies for the nations involved. We will continue to partner with leading industry bodies to bring about an improvement in the systems and processes to effectively manage climate change”.

Ivano Iannelli, CEO of Dubai Carbon stated: “This agreement represents a step forward in the right direction towards the larger mission as outlaid by the government of Oman and Kuwait. We firmly believe that the partnership with UNEP will develop a comprehensive NIS to monitor the critical data on climate change and implement effective strategies to monitor the results it will deliver.”

Data received from the new systems will inform the decisions of greenhouse-gas-emitting entities, their regulatory bodies and respective environment agencies. UNEP and DCCE will also implement an online reporting system and database to capture baseline data as of 2015 and maintain records on annual basis.

The project will devise procedures and protocols for reporting in line with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) standards, with definitions for reporting data tailored to national conditions. It will also propose quality assurance and control procedures, capturing them in a user-friendly manual.

A strong emphasis will be placed on training personnel in the use of the new reporting system and on communicating its benefits to decision makers.