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The UNFCCC commits the EU and its Member States to develop, periodically update, publish and report to the Conference of the Parties national inventories of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of all greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer (greenhouse gases), using comparable methodologies agreed upon by the Conference of the Parties.

The UNFCCC commits all Parties to formulate, implement, publish and regularly update national, and where appropriate, regional programmes containing measures to mitigate climate change by addressing anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of all greenhouse gases.

Adoption of the Kyoto Protocol

The Conference of the Parties to the Convention, at its first session, concluded that the commitment by developed countries to aim at returning, individually or jointly, their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer to 1990 levels by the year 2000 was inadequate for achieving the Convention's long-term objective of preventing dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.

The Conference further agreed to begin a process to enable appropriate action to be taken for the period beyond 2000, through the adoption of a protocol or another legal instrument.This process resulted in the adoption on 11 December 1997 of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

EU and Member States jointly responsible for the quantified emission reduction commitment

The Kyoto Protocol provides for Parties to fulfill their commitments jointly, acting in the framework of and together with a regional economic integration organisation.When the Protocol was signed in New York on 29 April 1998, the EU declared that it and its Member States would fulfill their respective commitments of the Protocol jointly.

In deciding to fulfill their commitments, the EU and the Member States are jointly responsible for the fulfillment by the EU of its quantified emission reduction commitment. Consequently, Member States individually and collectively have the obligation to take all appropriate measures, whether general or particular, to ensure fulfillment of the obligations resulting from action taken by the institutions of the EU, including the EU's quantified emission reduction commitment under the Protocol, to facilitate the achievement of this commitment and to abstain from any measure that could jeopardise the attainment of this commitment.

The Kyoto Protocol requires the EU to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. Most of the Member States that joined the EU in 2004 have the same target. The target for Hungary and Poland is -6% while Cyprus is no Annex-I Party to the UNFCCC and thus have no target.

EU monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions under the UNFCC and the Kyoto Protocol

Given the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol requirements, there is a need for thorough monitoring and regular assessment of EU greenhouse gas emissions and the measures taken by the EU and its Member States in the field of climate change policy need to be analysed in good time. Therefore, it is appropriate for the European Commission to provide for effective cooperation and coordination in relation to the compilation of the EU greenhouse gas inventory, the evaluation of progress, the preparation of reports, as well as review and compliance procedures enabling the EU to comply with its reporting obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, as laid down in the political agreements and legal decisions taken at the seventh Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in Marrakech ("the Marrakech Accords").

The European Environment Agency assists the Commission, as appropriate, with monitoring activities, especially in the scope of the EU inventory system, and in the analysis by the Commission of progress towards the fulfillment of the commitments under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol.

Since the objectives of complying with the EU's commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, in particular the monitoring and reporting requirements laid down therein, cannot, by their very nature, be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore be better achieved at EU level, the EU may also adopt measures.