Mr. Bill Callanan:

Emissions from animals, etc. are measured by equipment and various standards are used. It is very technical. On the land side, there is a paucity of knowledge and information as to what is happening regarding emissions in our soils. We have initiated an extensive research programme to answer that question.

For forestry, it is based around modelling on how much carbon trees take in and how much they store. I do not have the exact data on it but it is basically a factor of the pace of growth, the amount of carbon that is locked up in the trees as a consequence and the size and volumetric production of forestry. All of those elements translate into a number that relates to what is translated into the inventory. There are three levels of inventory, generally. Level 1 consists of broad international factors that are used, and then increasingly, as our local knowledge grows, we can increase our tier standard. In other words, using local factors for what we know through research funding establishes an appropriate inventory factor that is scientifically justified. The EPA is then responsible for the computation and calculation of the overall contribution.