The EDGAR inventories are used for providing realistic emission factors as well as activity data to the RIVM’s Global Change model ‘IMAGE 2’, in particular for fuel combustion, but also regional averaged emission factors for other sources. EDGAR inventories are also used by many modellers, either as EDGAR inventories or as specific GEIA inventories, which have been developed to support atmospheric modelling work, in particular under the umbrella of IGAC. EDGAR inventories developed as GEIA inventories are (A = Anthropogenic sources; N = Natural sources): 

• N2O (A + N) (Bouwman et al., 1995)
• NH3 (A + N) (Bouwman et al., 1997)
• NMVOC (A) [total and for 23 compound groups] (Berdowski et al., 2001; in prep.)
• CO (A) (Olivier et al., 1999)
• PFCs (A) and SF6 (A) (Olivier and Bakker, 1999)
  as well as:
• CO2 (A) - as alternative dataset, showing sectoral details
• parts of CH4 (A) - as part of the GEIA CH4 (A + N) inventory   

Other compound inventories are sometimes used as default for GEIA inventories (e.g. the SOx/NOx 1990 inventories, for countries where no official data exists). 
The TNO expertise in PMx emissions in Europe is also used in the compilation of the GEIA primary particles inventory. The 6th Scientific Conference of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project (IGAC) held in Bologna, Italy, in September 1999, was attended by about 370 scientists. 
IGAC, part of IGBP, is the forum for atmospheric chemistry modelling research. It was observed that of the 55 oral presentations about 20% referred to GEIA or EDGAR inventories. In addition to the 35 persons showing interest in GEIA products, GEIA members contacted about 30 other modelers at the conference on the subject of emissions. 
Thus, it can be concluded that at least about 20% of the modelers are using, or intending to use GEIA inventories (or may contribute to improving them). 
Most of the modelers not using GEIA inventories did not do so because there was not a GEIA inventory available for the species they were modeling. EDGAR inventories were often used when specific GEIA inventories were either unavailable or were considered out of date for the modeling purpose (i.e. not existing for a recent year). 
As a result of a poster presentation of GEIA and EDGAR inventories, about 35 modelers expressed their interest in receiving information on updates of GEIA and EDGAR. Some of them also offered to become member of a GEIA Study Group or to contribute specific inventories; eight of these 35 are working in developing countries.

Other identified users include: 

• Members of the Netherlands Centre for Climate Research (CKO), e.g. IMAU (e.g. Houweling et al., 2000; Roelofs and Lelieveld, 2000)
• Max Planck Institute Mainz (Lawrence et al., 1999a; Lawrence and Crutzen, 1999)
• Historical emission inventories of EDGAR/HYDE (Den Elzen et al., 1999)
• Integrated N assessments using NH3, NOx and N2O inventories (Olivier et al., 1998)
• MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, e.g. in the Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model (Mayer et al., 2000)
• Other NRP-MLK projects: e.g. emission reductions for non-CO2 greenhouse gases by De Jager et al.; validation of CH4 emissions in Northwest Europe by Berdowski et al.; and CH4 from rice fields in Asia by Denier van der Gon et al.).

These are just a selection of the applications of the gridded inventories.

The EDGAR inventories are used for assessment of annual trends in global and regional emissions of greenhouse gases and ozone depleting compounds as part of the annual Environmental Balance reports to provide the background picture for climate change policy in the Netherlands (RIVM, 2003). In addition, EDGAR data have been used in international integrated environmental assessments by the European Environment Agency (EEA, 2000) and UNEP for its Global Environmental Outlooks.

• the use of non-CO2 emission factors for fuel combustion in the Revised 1996 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (IPCC, 1997 ).
• comparison between national emission inventories for CO2, CH4 and N2O submitted to the UN Climate Change Secretariat as part of the National Communications and EDGAR inventories as reference database in two sequential reports (Greenhouse Gas Accounting, Van Amstel et al., 1997a,b; 1999a,b,c).
• using experience gained with uncertainty in emission inventories and knowledge about methodologies in IPCC workshops on Good Practice Guidance and Uncertainty Management (N2O, SF6, verification) and in UNFCCC workshops (Olivier et al., 1999d,e,h).
• estimations of emissions of the fluorinated gases for EU-15 countries for a EU study performed by Ecofys (Hendriks, pers. comm.).
• evaluation of the Brazilian proposal to the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC for burden sharing utilising historical emission estimates for years prior to 1990 using the historical emission dataset for the period 1890-1990 developed as EDGAR/HYDE (Den Elzen et al., 1999; Van Aardenne et al., 2001).
• analysis of CO2 emissions from international aviation and shipping (so-called bunker fuels) (Olivier and Peters, 1999f).
• IPCC integrated assessment of the impact of future emission scenarios on multiple environmental themes such as radiative forcing (greenhouse effect), acidification and urban air pollution (ozone etc.). These were based on the EDGAR 2.0 inventories because they are one of the few sets of inventories which provide sectoral details and are essentially spatially consistent across compounds, essential features for compiling emission scenarios on grid and use in environmental effect models which are multi-compound and utilise the spatial distribution of these emissions.
• contribution of no-CO2 sources and othen CO2 sources than fossil-fuel combustion to the IEA publication 'CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion' (Olivier, 2001; Olivier et al., 2001). 

A recent application is using EDGAR estimates for evaluating the options for emission trading under the UNFCCC (e.g. as part of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) or Activities Implemented Jointly (AIJ), in particular for sources for which reporting by Annex I ('more developed') countries is rather weak, incomplete or not comparable, such as for the F-gases, or for non-Annex I ('less developed') countries, for which often to date no official national inventory exists. This requires the availability of EDGAR data at country level for recent years and at a source level, which is adequate for identifying areas where technology improvement can reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially. EDGAR 3.0 provides this type of data