Accounting for emissions

with ISO

The world has started to cooperate on minimising the effects we have on our planet. B C Halan breaks down two recently issued ISO standards that do just that

Climate change caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions constitutes the greatest threat to the world economy. There is a need for accurate, transparent and complete accounting of GHG emissions and emission reductions the world over. To fulfil this need, in 2002, ISO decided to create a series of standards, ISO 14064 and ISO 14065, that would:

  • enhance environmental integrity
  • enable organizations to identify and manage GHG-related liabilities, assets and risks
  • facilitate the trade of GHG allowances or credits
  • support the design, development and implementation of comparable and consistent GHG schemes or programmes

They are not in themselves a GHG pro­gramme or scheme, but are discrete GHG quan­tification, verification and accreditation tools.

ISO 14064

The ISO 14064 series has been developed in three parts as a practical tool to enable governments and businesses to measure and manage GHG emissions and reduction activities. ISO 14064 will ensure that ‘a tonne of carbon is always a tonne of carbon’ and provide clarity and consistency between those reporting GHG emissions and stakeholders.

Part 1 of the standard focuses on the design and development of organizational GHG inventories. It provides specifications with guidance for the quantification and reporting of GHG emissions and removals and details principles and requirements for designing, developing, managing and reporting GHG inventories.

The second part looks at how to design and implement GHG projects, including specifications with guidance at the project level for the quantification, monitoring and reporting of GHG-emission reductions and removal enhancements. The focus is on projects or project-based activities that are specifically designed to reduce GHG emissions or increase GHG removals.

ISO 14064 part 3 describes the process for GHG-related validation or verification and specifies components such as validation or verification planning, assessment procedures and the evaluation of organization or project GHG assertions.

ISO 14065

GHG validation or verification bodies are responsible for completing an objective assessment of GHG assertions and providing a formal written declaration which provides assurance on the statements contained in the assertion. ISO 14065 provides a basis for assessing and recognising the competence of these GHG validation and verification bodies.

With ISO 14064-3, it represents the architecture for conformity assessment applicable to the validation or verification of GHG assertions or claims. Such application of ISO standards will add con­fidence, consistency and cer­tainty to the GHG market. The standard has been based on the principles of impartiality, competence and confidentiality and aims to:

  • develop flexible, regime-neutral tools for use in voluntary or regulatory GHG schemes
  • promote and harmonize best practice
  • support the environmental integrity of GHG asser­tions
  • assist organizations to manage GHG-related opportunities and risks
  • support the development of GHG programmes and markets
  • standardize system requirements, which include, impartiality, avoidance of conflict of inter­est, per­sonnel competencies, confidentiality and record keeping.

How the standards will help

These ISO standards offer practical tools for addressing climate change at four levels:

  • monitoring climate change through technical, basic equipment and measurement standards
  • quantifying GHG emissions and communicating on environmental impacts
  • promoting good practice in environmental management and design, for example achieving organizational commitment to the environment through implementation of ISO 14001
  • opening markets for energy-efficient technologies and renewable sources, including established programmes for hydrogen, nuclear and wind technologies, as well as new standardization work on solid and liquid bio fuels and proposals for standards on improving energy management in organizations

The standards will help organizations in emissions verification and emissions trading, identifying opportunities for energy-consumption savings and process improvement, while demonstrating the objectively assessed measurements which key stakeholders are demanding. The words of the ISO deputy secretary-general, Kevin McKinley, are important in summing up the significance of the standards:

'The success of all emissions trading programmes will be assisted by extensive use and reference to the globally accepted ISO 14064 series and ISO 14065. In fact, truly additional and material reductions in global GHG emissions can only be achieved through the continued convergence of ISO standards and both the voluntary and regulatory GHG-emission verification, validation; accreditation and trading regimes…These ISO standards are playing the foundational role in contributing to mitigating climate change and to achieving a truly sustainable world.’


About the author

Colonel BC Halan is a QMS 2000 principal auditor and EMS 14000 lead auditor. He has 53 years’ experience in the fields of combat, research and development, quality assurance and environment management, as well as conducting training programmes. He has translated Japanese management books into Hindi and published many articles relating to quality and environment and is presently working as an independent consultant, auditor and trainer. He can be contacted at bchalan@hotmail.com
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