An initial analysis of the greenhouse gas information submitted by all Parties to the Convention was undertaken with the aim of providing information on methodological issues that would assist the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the revision of the Revised 1996 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (1996 IPCC Guidelines). The analysis shows that the 1996 IPCC Guidelines have enabled Parties to provide inventory data for most source categories. It also shows that existing methodologies should be improved, new methodologies should be developed for some sectors and activities, coverage of activities in some sectors should be expanded and the emission factors in the 1996 IPCC Guidelines and/or the IPCC Emission Factor Database should be updated. Such improvements would ensure that all Parties will be able to provide more complete, accurate and reliable estimates of greenhouse gas emissions and removals in the future