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15 - Synthesis

from Part III - MRV at offset project scale

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2015

Valentin Bellassen
Affiliation:
Institut National pour la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)
Nicolas Stephan
Affiliation:
CDC Climat
Marion Afriat
Affiliation:
CDC Climat
Emilie Alberola
Affiliation:
CDC Climat
Alexandra Barker
Affiliation:
NPL
Jean-Pierre Chang
Affiliation:
UNFCCC
Caspar Chiquet
Affiliation:
MRV practice of South Pole Carbon
Ian Cochran
Affiliation:
CDC Climat
Mariana Deheza
Affiliation:
CDC Climat
Chris Dimopoulos
Affiliation:
NPL
Claudine Foucherot
Affiliation:
CDC Climat
Guillaume Jacquier
Affiliation:
CITEPA
Romain Morel
Affiliation:
CDC Climat
Roderick Robinson
Affiliation:
NPL
Igor Shishlov
Affiliation:
CDC Climat
Valentin Bellassen
Affiliation:
CDC Climat, Paris
Nicolas Stephan
Affiliation:
CDC Climat, Paris
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Summary

This chapter brings together all the previous ones. Based on the detailed presentation and analysis of the MRV requirements of so many different carbon pricing and management mechanisms – hereafter “carbon pricing mechanisms,” it synthesizes and compares how they answered to the five cross-cutting questions identified in the general introduction to the book:

  1. • What are the MRV requirements?

  2. • What are the costs for entities to meet these requirements?

  3. • Is a flexible trade-off between requirements and costs allowed?

  4. • Is requirements stringency adapted to the amount of emissions at stake (materiality)?

  5. • What is the balance between comparability and information relevance?

MRV requirements across schemes

The first cross-cutting question – what are the MRV requirements? – is too large to be answered in a synthetic way. This section thus focuses on two components of this question that have a major impact on MRV costs: requirements pertaining to third-party verification and those pertaining to monitoring uncertainty.

Verification requirements are broadly similar across the board

Most carbon pricing mechanisms impose a verification of the reports by an independent third party. Verification requirements are broadly similar across carbon pricing mechanisms:

  1. • the third party must be accredited by a regulator for GHG emissions audits and this accreditation tends to be sector-specific;

  2. • the third party must assess whether the methods used and the reporting format comply with the relevant guidelines;

  3. • the third party must assess the accuracy, i.e., the absence of bias, of the reported figures;

  4. • the regulator is allowed to question the opinion of the auditor, but seldom does so;• the third party tends to be paid directly by the verified entity. Although this creates a potential conflict of interest, the risk of losing the accreditation is a much stronger incentive and keeps auditors from being complacent with their client (Cormier and Bellassen, 2013).

Type
Chapter
Information
Accounting for Carbon
Monitoring, Reporting and Verifying Emissions in the Climate Economy
, pp. 510 - 537
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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References

Bellassen, V. and Alberola, E., 2014. European Offset Projects: A tool to rally Poland towards the 2030 Energy Climate Package. Tendances Carbone 1.Google Scholar
Cochran, I., 2010. A use-based analysis of local-scale GHG inventories (No. 2010–7), Working paper. CDC Climat Research, Paris.
Cormier, A. and Bellassen, V., 2013. The risks of CDM projects: how did only 30% of expected credits come through?Energy Policy 54: 173–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cosbey, A., Droege, S., Fischer, C., Reinaud, J., Stephenson, J., Weischer, L. and Wooders, P., 2012. A Guide for the Concerned: Guidance on the elaboration and implementation of border carbon adjustment (No. 03), Policy Report. Entwined|, Stockholm.
European Commission, 2006. Inclusion of additional activities and gases into the EU-emissions trading scheme, Review of the EU emissions trading scheme. European Commission, Directorate General for Environment, Brussels.
King, K., Pye, S. and Davison, S., 2010. Assessing the Cost to UK Operators of Compliance with the EU Emissions Trading System. Aether, Abingdon, UK.Google Scholar
Kokoni, S. and Skea, J., 2014. Input–output and life-cycle emissions accounting: applications in the real world. Climate Policy 14: 372–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millard-Ball, A., 2013. The trouble with voluntary emissions trading: uncertainty and adverse selection in sectoral crediting programs. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 65: 40–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shishlov, I. and Bellassen, V., 2014. Review of monitoring uncertainty requirements in the CDM (No. 16), Working paper. CDC Climat, Paris, 33pp.
Shishlov, I., Bellassen, V. and Leguet, B., 2012. Joint Implementation: a frontier mechanism within the borders of an emissions cap (Climate Report No. 33). CDC Climat Research, Paris.
UNFCCC, 2008. Tool to calculate project or leakage CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion.
US EPA, 2009. Regulatory Impact Analysis for the Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Final Rule (GHG Reporting). United States Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC.
Warnecke, C., 2014. Can CDM monitoring requirements be reduced while maintaining environmental integrity?Climate Policy 14(4): 443–466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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