2.3.2.3. Illustrative Accounting Rules for the Protocol

Either of the generic rules described in Section 2.3.2.2 could be applied to the human-induced activities that are included in Kyoto accountings, or they may be included depending on decisions of the Parties. These approaches can be expressed by the equations in Table 2-3.

Land-Based Rule		Activity-Based Rule
Symbol	Definition	Symbol	Definition
Q	Quantity of carbon emissions debited or removals credited	Q	Quantity of carbon emissions debited or removals credited
i	Indexes a landscape unit whose LUCF activity places it in Kyoto accounting system	i	Indexes activity
j	Indexes carbon pools (e.g., aboveground biomass, below-ground biomass, etc.)	k	Indexes adjustments
k	Indexes adjustments	M	Total number of activities in Kyoto accounting system
M	Total number of landscape units in Kyoto accounting system	Li	Land area subject to activity i
N	Total number of carbon pools included in Kyoto accounting system	ai	Carbon emissions or removals per unit land area from activity i
R	Total number of adjustments adopted for use in Kyoto accounting system	R	Total number of adjustments adopted for use in Kyoto accounting system
TE	Year at end of commitment period	Ak	Adjustment k, if adopted, to reflect, e.g., baselines, leakage, uncertainty, etc.
TB	Year at beginning of commitment period
Sij(t)	Stock of carbon on landscape unit i, in carbon pool j, in year t
Ak	Adjustment k, if adopted, to reflect, e.g., baselines, leakage, uncertainty, etc.

The accounting rules applied under Articles 3.3 and 3.4 need not be identical. For examples, the Parties may decide to apply a land-based accounting system for ARD activities and an activity-based accounting system to additional activities adopted under Article 3.4. Similarly, the Parties may decide on a different approach to baselines for ARD activities, additional activities, and projects. Baselines are discussed in Section 2.3.4.

If different accounting rules are adopted for ARD activities and Article 3.4 activities, decision rules may be needed to determine which accounting rule applies to land that, over time, is subject to both types of activity. For example, one set of accounting rules could be given primacy in cases where both sets could potentially apply. Similarly, if management of harvested material is treated as an additional activity under Article 3.4, it may be necessary to exclude changes in this pool from the accounting of other activities under Article 3.3 or 3.4 to avoid the potential for double-counting.

IPCC Homepage