Action 8: Monitoring greenhouse gases for climate protection

Where do we stand?

Germany has committed itself to reducing greenhouse gas emissions together with the states that are signatories to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). To ensure international transparency and comparability, annual reports on national greenhouse gas emissions are submitted to the UNFCCC in accordance with the rules of the United Nations. An integrated monitoring system will therefore be developed, tested and operationally implemented for Germany. To this end, there will be a division of labour between the Federal Ministry of Research, the Federal Ministry for the Environment and the Federal Ministry of Transport. After successful testing, this system can be transferred to other countries.

What are the research needs?

The aim of the integrated monitoring system is, on the one hand, to enable the levels of greenhouse gas emissions to be determined and, on the other hand, to expand development of systems to forecast greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere over time. In order to collect the data, high-resolution measurements from different measurement systems (ground, aircraft, satellite) must be dovetailed with modelling in new ways. This requires high-performance computing resources.

Implementation steps and milestones

• In 2020, we will begin planning, developing and implementing an integrated greenhouse gas monitoring system – an integriertes Treibhausgas-Monitoringsystem (ITMS) – in a joint effort with scientific institutions, the Federal Ministry for the Environment and the Federal Ministry of Transport.
• The planning process for the ITMS will be concluded by the adoption of an inter-ministerial agreement between the Federal Ministry for the Environment, the Federal Ministry of Transport and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, which will regulate, among other things, the financial requirements in 2020. Research funding will commence in 2021, and the prototype will be ready in 2025.