QA/QC of outside agencies in the Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory. Update of the background information in the Netherlands National System

The Netherlands is required to report to the European Union on the emission of greenhouse gases every year. This is agreed upon in international climate agreements such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement. The National Greenhouse Gas Inventory System safeguards the quality of the Dutch reports. These are reports on actual emissions, on the method and description of quality assurance and on quality control. Various organisations work together to collect data for these reports. The quality control and quality assurance of the Netherlands’ Emissions Registration ensures that the data are reliable and high quality. However, not all organisations fall under the direct influence of the quality assurance and control of the Netherlands Pollutant Emission Register. These organisations are termed ‘outside agencies’. These are Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), the Waste Management department of the Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat) and research institutes of Wageningen University & Research (WUR). In this document, RIVM describes the quality control and quality assurance (QA/QC) of these outside agencies. This document is updated at least every five years. There are also stringent quality requirements for the data provided by these outside agencies. Most agencies meet the standards of the internationally recognised NEN-EN-ISO 9001 quality system. An independent organisation regularly checks whether these agencies meet the standards of this quality system. This organisation also ensures that the agencies continue to meet the requirements. For outside agencies without NEN-EN-ISO certification, descriptions of their work processes have been added to this document or reference is made to documents in which these processes are described, outlining how outside agencies assure quality. This is how the Netherlands ensures that the reports on greenhouse gases are reliable, regardless of the organisation providing the data.