Air pollution impacts our health, environment and economy. Air pollutants come from multiple sources, such as traffic, industry and agriculture, and are transported over large distances and across borders. It is therefore paramount that we take action together — across sectors and national boundaries.

UNECE member States have been working successfully for cleaner air in the region since 1979 through the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution.

A basic obligation under the Convention is to report emission inventories. An emission inventory quantifies air pollutants and/or greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere in a defined geographical area and time span. Inventories are used to study trends in major air pollution sources and evaluate the impact of air pollution abatement measures. For example, Governments can use emission data to develop sustainable national and local policies, evaluate their effectiveness and impact on populations and ecosystems, demonstrate compliance with emission reduction targets, and provide information to the public.  

This self-paced e-course aims to explain the importance of emission inventories for clean air policy development, the requirements for emission inventory reporting and methods for emission estimation.

The course features three distinct modules that aim to equip learners with the knowledge and resource materials to understand the purpose of emission inventories, to follow the reporting process under the Convention and to contribute to emission inventory development. 

The course was developed by the UNECE secretariat on the basis of materials developed under the Convention.

This e-course was made available on UN CC:e-Learn through the new UN CC:Learn affiliation programme, which highlights high-quality e-learning products on climate change developed by recognized institutions outside the framework of the UN CC:Learn programme / without support from the UN CC:Learn Secretariat, in accordance with specific affiliation criteria. The objective of the UN CC:Learn affiliation programme is to enhance global climate literacy through dissemination of high-level learning products that complement UN CC:Learn resources.