1. What can we learn from GHG QA/QC?
A South Africa example
Richard Claxton & Kathryn Hampshire
10/05/2017, WORKSHOP ON UNCERTAINTIES & QA/QC
Krakow

2. Think of it as a house of lego
Raw materials that represent the data and elements of our inventory and we need to form them into our reporting needs
QA/QC is the guidance, rules and systems that mean we build this efficiently and accurately

3. Transparency and MRV If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it…
Track it (M)
Share it (R)
Believe it (V)
NDC
On CC side we have a key element we refer to as ‘transparency’ which guides all aspects of our work, and the process of…
Measuring, reporting and verifying our climate action and data
If you can’t measure it…

4. Paris Agreement Article 13 (Transparency)
This is outlined in the Paris Agreement text – article 13 but what does this mean?

5. Paris Agreement Article 13 (Transparency)
13(7a): A national inventory report of anthropogenic emissions by sources and…….
13(7b): Information necessary to track progress made in implementing and achieving its nationally determined contribution under Article 4.
13(8): information related to climate change impacts and adaptation under Article 7.
13(9 & 10): information on financial, technology transfer and capacity-building support provided to developing country Parties under Article 9, 10 and 11.
13(11 & 12): a technical expert review of 13(7) & 13(9), in accordance with decision 1/CP.21. In addition, each Party shall participate in a facilitative, multilateral consideration of progress
Basically, the text outlines the requirements for transparent national reporting. These are the elements…
READ
The top two in particular are also relevant to AQ
How does this look in practice for a Party signed up to Paris?...

6. South Africa Case Study: Plan for Paris Agreement to 2030
GHG Inventory and National System (QA/QC needs throughout)
Mitigation Action analysis (QA/QC needs throughout)
baseline data on trends
impacts of mitigation actions
Mitigation MRV System
M&E System
This slide shows SA’s plan for engagement in the Paris Agreement through to 2030.
It’s a bit of a mess, but you can see the number of communications and reporting of progress and future mitigation plans/projections. A robust QA/QC regime is essential if this process is going to engage with stakeholders and accelerate action.
On the AQ side we could picture a timeline to 2030 – what reports and datasets do we need to provide? We will go through verification and review, so evidence of thorough QA/QC is important
South Africa Case Study: Plan for Paris Agreement to 2030

7. How do we use QA/QC effectively
How do we use QA/QC effectively? Timely reporting of high quality outputs… (SA Priorities)
Use agreed methods that are complete, transparent and accurate.
Apply traceable quality assurance and quality control to input datasets and outputs to build user confidence.
Produce timely detailed output that are useful for decision making and reporting.
Provide timely input to National Policy making and strategic activities.
Engage in and support International Consultation and Analysis
Continuously improve. Manage an Improvement Plan
Establish robust Archiving systems
In order for SA to deliver effectively under Paris, we worked with them to identify some high level priorities for the QA/QC plan

8. QA/QC is essential and needs to work for you…
Its importance is increasing… SA wants to have a high profile in Paris Agreement
Ensures credibility of the system producing the data that is used by decision makers
Makes working on technical projects interesting and engaging
Makes collaboration easier
Makes handover easier

9. How? Timely reporting of high quality outputs…
Use agreed methods that are complete, transparent and accurate.
Apply traceable quality assurance and quality control to input datasets and outputs to build user confidence.
Produce timely detailed output that are useful for decision making and reporting.
Provide timely input to National Policy making and strategic activities.
Engage in and support International Consultation and Analysis
Continuously improve. Manage an Improvement Plan
Establish robust Archiving systems
Very easy to say we do QA/QC, but not always easy to provide evidence of it. Traceability and providing this evidence is crucial for developing confidence in the outputs of our work, and also providing expert reviewers with enough information.
Kathryn will now talk to you about some specific challenges we faced when developing a system with South Africa and how these influenced our solutions

10. Key assets of a well functioning QA/QC system
Efficient and transparent QA/QC processes.
Facilitate documentation and conversation – improved communication, transparency, learning and handover
Consistent and efficient approach – customisable, aid handover, streamlined, broad range of situations
Aether developed approaches being implemented in South Africa (GHG inventory) and Ireland (Energy analysis)… Some insights to follow…
Aether has developed a system to enable organisations, departments and teams to carry out QA/QC processes in a highly efficient and transparent way.
The tool facilitates documentation and conversation between author and reviewer - improving communication and transparency, accelerating learning and aiding work handover.
Consistent – handover and streamlined, can be customised – bespoke and efficient. Can be applied to a broad range of situations
Currently being implement in South Africa and Ireland
I’m going to run through the key challenges that are faced when trying to implement effective QA/QC procedures. I’ll talk through how these challenges can be met and I’ll also provide some examples of how we have implemented good practice in South Africa.

11. Key approach developed:
Initial data processing – inventory compilation, model creation
Compiler uses the tools to document important information, highlight potential improvements and flag issues
Review of inventory or model
Reviewer can respond to compiler comments and add new comments to flag issues or features that need explaining
Responding to review
Conversation between compiler and reviewer facilitates communication and allows issues to be resolved efficiently
Sign-off and delivery
All issues are collated and the progress tracked. It is therefore easy to identify when all issues are resolved and sign off can occur
These steps can go through many iterations

12. Transparency
Challenge: Ensuring there is proof of the QA/QC procedures undertaken and that the findings are clearly documented.
Facilitate documentation – consistent recording and collation of findings
Provide proof of procedures – comprehensive record of checking and review processes, track progress and completeness
Allow conversation between author and reviewer - collaboration
Challenge: Provide proof and traceability for QA/QC processes that have been carried out The findings and resulting actions should be clearly documented.
Documentation –consistent approach to recording findings, collated – easy to see and review all documentation.
Proof - a comprehensive record of all checking and review processes carried out on the document –easy to bring in new team members assess the completeness and progress
Conversation – allowing for conversation means people can work together to resolve issues with the whole conversation being documented.
South Africa – Provided the tools for use in setting up and using compilation spreadsheets. This will be used across all inventory sectors to enhance transparency through documentation. It will also help them if the inventory team changes as all checks and issues are well documented.
South Africa: Tools provided for use in inventory compilation across all sectors. It will be used to enhance documentation and allow for better handover when staff changes occur.

13. Efficiency
Challenge: Running in depth QA/QC processes can be time consuming and procedures can vary across teams, organisations and people working on the project.
Develop a consistent approach – uniform approach, collaboration, information sharing
Enhanced learning and easier handover
Collation of findings and tracking of progress
Checklist for ensuring completeness
Consistent approach –makes QA/QC processes uniform be this across sectors, departments, teams. aids collaboration and sharing of information as everyone is taking the same approach.
Enhanced learning – The ability to highlight important information, such as trends that need explaining or issues that need resolving enhances knowledge. Combined with allowing for communication and therefore information sharing and learning. Also means handover is much easier due to consistent approach and good documentation.
Collation - Pulls together all issues and allows you to track progress on issues
Check list - Use as a checklist to ensure all necessary checks are done – e.g. all elements needed for completeness are fulfilled
South Africa – One issue highlighted was the need for a more efficient handover process due to changing team members - consistent approach and increased documentation means new team members or experts from different sectors should be able to easily pick up other work and quickly understand what is going on in each document. Enhances collaboration as it makes it quick and easy for someone to investigate an issue that is raised who may have technical expertise.
South Africa: a consistent approach is used across all inventory compilation spreadsheets. It makes handover of work much easier as well as enhancing collaboration.

14. Flexibility
Challenge: QA/QC needs to meet user needs – organisations, departments, teams may have different QA/QC requirements.
Elements should be tailored to the user needs
Overall working of the system should be standardised but individual elements can be bespoke
The consistent approach is important for reasons highlighted previously however allowing elements to be customised ensures that it is as efficient as possible for the user.
Elements within the system should be tailored. Flexible to cope with requirements of different teams or different projects.
South Africa – We worked with the team in South Africa to create a personalised version of the tool that met their needs and requirements. suited to their needs and the expertise of the current inventory team. Tool can be adapted once we have handed it over should needs and requirements change.
South Africa: We worked with the inventory team to create a personalised system that met the team’s needs. Also showed how to adapt the system in the future.

15. The overall aim is to make QA/QC procedures efficient and transparent.
Conclusions
The overall aim is to make QA/QC procedures efficient and transparent.
Do not aim to create new QA/QC procedures. Make good practice easier to do
Use of specialised tools can feed directly into improvement plans
If you would like more information on tools and how to use them please come and find us.
Making best practice simple – not create a whole new QA/QC procedure, just make the good things more simple, streamlined and efficient to do.
The tool can be used to feed directly into improvement plans – it has the ability to highlight areas of weakness and also areas where improvements could be made. These can be collated and then fed into an improvement plan. So you can see how this tool can be used throughout the whole lifetime of a project, from creation, through review and editing, to delivery and improvements.