The purpose of this template is to help the National Inventory Coordinator (NIC) develop a National Inventory Improvement Plan (NIIP). Every country should have a comprehensive improvement plan including identifying improvements to methods, data, and the inventory system to improve inventory quality over time, including the transparency, consistency, comparability, completeness, and accuracy of subsequent reported national GHG inventories. Beyond identifying improvement projects, the improvement plan should also the assign a priority level to each proposed project. The plan should also provide an explanation of why certain improvement options should be considered high priority (e.g., key categories), outline implementation details (e.g., projected budget and resource needs), and indicate the time horizon for implementation (e.g., near-term such as the next inventory or long-term meaning future inventories).  The plan will likely focus on improvements to key categories, consistent with IPCC good practice guidance, any priority capacity-building needs identified during technical analysis of Biennial Update Reports, Biennial Transparency Reports, or other QA/QC processes, and on all other aspects of the inventory as resources permit.

Preparing and reporting an improvement plan is consistent with future reporting requirements under the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF)¹. To facilitate continuous improvement, countries should identify, regularly update, and report information on areas of improvement. In addition to areas noted above, improvements should also address capacity constraints related to use of flexibility and in the future, responding to improvements identified by technical expert review teams.