SUMMARY

PARIS is a HorizonEurope research project that aims to significantly increase our knowledge about greenhouse gas emissions, the evaluation & combination of scientific approaches and a progressive use of collaborative data. 

17 European partners focus on emissions of common greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, and new emissions estimates for fluorinated gases (F-gases). 

For greenhouse gases with a more complex mixture of sources, methane and carbon dioxide, research in PARIS focuses on the attribution of fluxes to particular sources and sinks. We will advance our world-leading isotopologue measurements and tracer-based analysis methods, providing inventory teams with new information to target areas of uncertainty. For nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas for which most European inventories rely on highly simplified and uncertain bottom-up methods, two process-level models will be advanced to produce time- and space-resolved estimates that will be evaluated against isotopic data. For the important, but complex, climate forcers, organic matter aerosol and black carbon, we will take the next steps required towards robust top-down emissions inference by developing source apportionment methods.

To generate maximum impact, we will synthesise our efforts in the form of draft annual Annexes to National Inventory Reports (NIRs) for eight European PARIS focus countries. Collaborative top-down and bottom-up approaches will reduce barriers between inventory teams and GHG researchers in our focus countries by evaluating inventory estimates for ‘easy win’ compounds (e.g. F-gases), developing sector-level emissions estimates for gases with complex sources, and exchanging knowledge between countries with evaluation programmes in different stages of development.