How Countries Track Their Emissions and Mitigation Actions And how they can do better

This fact sheet by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) evaluates the measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems used by China, Germany, Italy, and the United States to track greenhouse gas emissions and climate mitigation actions. The analysis assesses these systems against six criteria: transparency, comparability, reliability, usefulness, timeliness, and completeness.

• While emissions tracking systems are generally well-established across the four studied countries, they are more developed for energy-related emissions than for non-energy emissions. The amount of resources allocated to preparing these inventories varies by country.
• All four analyzed countries struggle to track the impact of climate policies in a comprehensive and consistent manner. Current systems for tracking mitigation actions tend to prioritize forecasts of future outcomes over retrospective analysis of actual effects and are strongest for international or major mandatory domestic policies.
• Existing MRV systems generally fail to identify the most resource-efficient and effective policies because tracking mitigation impacts and costs in a rigorous and comparable way is very difficult.
• China is improving its institutional capacity for producing reliable GHG inventories, though this capacity was previously very limited. Its MRV systems lack public and expert review of methods and data, and while energy usage tracking is extensive, reporting for non-energy activities is less comprehensive.
• Germany possesses a high-functioning emissions tracking system, but its overall mitigation tracking is hindered by a lack of institutional coordination. To monitor its energy transition, Germany needs to implement data collection systems and update its energy statistics law.
• Italy has a very comprehensive emissions inventory and strong institutional expertise. However, its individual policy tracking systems often employ inconsistent methodologies for estimating impacts, and national tracking for renewable energy and energy efficiency lacks post-implementation mitigation impact estimates.
• The United States has very strong GHG emissions tracking systems that support policymaking. Conversely, its mitigation action tracking lacks a unified method for estimating and reporting impacts, making it difficult for policymakers to determine which policies are most efficient.

APA

Climate Policy Initiative (n.d.). How Countries Track Their Emissions and Mitigation Actions And how they can do better. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Tracking-Emissions-and-Mitigation-Actions-Factsheet1.pdf

Chicago

Climate Policy Initiative. How Countries Track Their Emissions and Mitigation Actions And how they can do better. n.d. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Tracking-Emissions-and-Mitigation-Actions-Factsheet1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate Policy Initiative |title=How Countries Track Their Emissions and Mitigation Actions And how they can do better |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Tracking-Emissions-and-Mitigation-Actions-Factsheet1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climatepolicyinitiativendhow, author = {{Climate Policy Initiative}}, title = {{How Countries Track Their Emissions and Mitigation Actions And how they can do better}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Tracking-Emissions-and-Mitigation-Actions-Factsheet1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }