In order to improve the credibility of corporate carbon emission reporting, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has released the ISO14064 standard, which includes the "ISO 14064-2 Specification and Guidelines for Quantification, Monitoring, and Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction and Removal at the Project Level" providing principles and requirements for the project planning phase, as well as quantitative guidance for the project implementation phase. The following figure shows a typical GHG project process.
principle
The standard outlines the principles to be followed when quantifying, monitoring, and reporting GHG emission reductions and removals at the project level, including relevance, completeness, consistency, accuracy, transparency, and conservatism. The project proposer is required to select data that is relevant to the target user's needs and ensure the completeness and transparency of the data information. The release of GHG information should reduce bias and uncertainty, and conservative assumptions should be adopted in estimation to avoid overestimating the results.
Identification of sinks, sources, and repositories related to the project
Require the project proposer to identify all physical units or processes directly or indirectly related to GHG emissions and removals associated with the project, including sources, sinks, and reservoirs controlled by the project, associated with the project, and potentially affected by the project.
This identification process needs to be based on selected or established criteria and procedures to ensure that all relevant GHG sources, sinks, and reservoirs are fully considered in order to accurately quantify the GHG emissions and removals of the project, and assess the potential impact and contribution of the project to climate change.
A baseline scenario is a hypothetical scenario used as a benchmark for comparison to evaluate and quantify the actual effectiveness of GHG emission reduction projects or activities. It represents the level of GHG emissions or removals that would normally occur if specific GHG reduction measures were not implemented. The baseline scenario provides a standard for comparing changes in GHG emissions and removals before and after project implementation.
The baseline scenario helps determine whether the GHG emission reductions or removal increments generated by the project exceed the scope of normal business activities, that is, whether the project has generated additional environmental benefits. Meanwhile, in many GHG trading and credit systems, baseline scenarios are a key factor in determining whether a project meets credit issuance conditions.
The baseline scenario should include all GHG sources and sinks related to the project, even if these sources and sinks are not directly controlled by the project and may be affected by the project. At the same time, the determination of baseline scenarios should take into account the additionality of the project, that is, the increase in GHG emissions reduction or removal brought by the project should exceed the normal business development trajectory. The project proposer needs to demonstrate that without the implementation of the project, GHG emissions or removals in the baseline scenario will not spontaneously change.
(1) In the process of quantifying GHG emissions and removals, it is necessary to select or establish appropriate criteria and methods to quantify the emissions and removals of GHG sources, sinks, and reservoirs related to the project.
(2) The project proposal party needs to apply the same criteria and methods to quantify the increase in GHG emissions reduction and removal, that is, the amount of GHG emissions reduction and removal increase brought about by project implementation. This requires comparing the GHG emissions and removals after project implementation with the corresponding data under the baseline scenario to determine the additionality of the project, that is, the GHG emission reduction or removal effects beyond the conventional business or technological development trajectory brought about by project implementation.
The above two steps together ensure that the quantification of project environmental performance is both accurate and comparable, providing a solid data foundation for project evaluation, approval, and verification.
In the process of quantification, when the data or information relied upon has high uncertainty, the project proposer should choose assumptions or values that do not lead to overestimation of emissions reduction and removal. The project proposer should estimate the emissions and/or removals of sources, sinks, and reservoirs that are related to the project and baseline scenarios but not regularly monitored. The project proposal should evaluate the risk of adverse reactions to GHG emissions reduction or removal increase, and focus on the persistence of emissions reduction or removal increase.
The standard requires the project proposer to establish and maintain a monitoring program to continuously track and record the impact of project activities on greenhouse gas emissions and removals. This program includes collecting, recording, compiling, and analyzing GHG data and information related to the project to ensure the effectiveness of monitoring activities and the accuracy of data. The design of monitoring programs should take into account the types and units of measurement of data, data sources, monitoring methods (such as direct measurement, estimation, simulation, etc.), monitoring frequency, and allocation of responsibilities.
The project proposer also needs to ensure that monitoring activities comply with project objectives and GHG project requirements, in order to accurately assess the actual impact of project implementation on GHG emissions and removals, and provide reliable data support for continuous improvement and effectiveness evaluation of the project.
Greenhouse gas report content
GHG reports should indicate the intended use and target users of the report, the format and content of the report should be suitable for the needs of the target users, and the public accessibility of the report should be determined. The specific content of GHG report should include at least the following parts:
Project Overview and Participation Status: Name of the project proposer, GHG schemes included in the project, and GHG declaration list.
Project implementation and effectiveness evaluation: Project description, cumulative GHG emissions and removals under baseline scenarios, description of baseline scenarios, and performance evaluation (if feasible).
Methodology and verification: calculation criteria and operational guidelines, verification statements, report dates and coverage time periods.
ISO 14064-2 provides guidance on establishing and implementing projects to reduce GHG emissions or increase GHG removals, including principles and requirements for determining baseline scenarios and monitoring, quantifying, and reporting project emissions and removals. The standard focuses on greenhouse gas projects or project-based activities specifically aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions or increasing greenhouse gas removal, or both. Assist enterprises in evaluating and demonstrating the environmental benefits of their emission reduction projects at the project level, enhancing their commitment and performance in sustainable development and climate change response.
