Greenhouse gas auditors band together to offer important new industry voice as spotlight grows on emission-reduction projects
17th February 2011 by Madlen King
Greenhouse gas auditors band together to offer important new industry voice as spotlight grows on emission-reduction projects
Association formed to encourage dialogue between carbon market participants and regulators
Some of the world’s leading greenhouse-gas auditing firms have joined forces to promote dialogue among the carbon industry’s disparate stakeholders and to ensure consistent representation of their community at related United Nations forums.
The Designated Operational Entities and Independent Entities Association (DIA) has been launched last week and will be formally registered as an association in Geneva, Switzerland, creating a collective voice to represent the interests of companies auditing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction projects in international carbon markets.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) provides a mechanism for a common voice from the DOEs to the Clean Development Mechanism Executive Board (CDM EB) and the Joint implementation Supervisory Committee (JISC) in the DOE Forum but this places an undue burden on one particular DOE. There has been a growing need for more active, coordinated and direct dialogue between the various carbon market participants including the regulators. As the procedures become more complicated there is a need for the DOEs to commit resources to research and review the potential changes and to play a more proactive role is forming alternatives and it is sensible for these to be provided as a common resource.
The purpose of the Association is to be an independent, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the development and establishment of effective processes and criteria for, and related to, the determination, validation and verification of emission reduction and sequestration projects and to represent the members at relevant bodies that administer the various GHG programmes that accept UNFCCC ac-credited bodies to carry out determination and validation or verification services.
In collaboration with its members, the Association will:
- Be a forum for communication and mediation between members and UNFCCC bodies, governments, non-governmental and business associations and the general public on issues relating to the purpose of the Association;
- Be a forum for sharing experiences related to the purpose of the Association;
- Contribute pro-actively to the further development of a reliable legal basis for validation and verification services in the voluntary and regulated framework;
- Foster close links with other bodies which have responsibilities and/or expertise that are relevant to the Association’s purpose, including but not limited to governments, non-governmental and business organisations;
Michael Fahy, Senior Vice President, SGS has been elected as the inaugural chair of the DIA Commenting on the official launch, he said; “The DIA will provide a unified forum to enhance the dialogue between auditing firms and the other players in the various GHG programmes. This will help to facilitate the highest industry standards and enable the CDM and JI framework to achieve its goals of supporting sustainable development and significantly reducing global greenhouse gas emissions while ensuring the highest levels of transparency and respectability
The Association will have a permanent operations office in Freising, Germany, which will be headed by Mr. Werner Betzenbichler and Mr. Martin Enderlin. Both can refer to extensive experience in this business environment with Mr. Betzenbichler as previous head of a DOE and later with project developer Sindicatum Carbon Capital and Mr. Enderlin, a former CDM EB member and former Director for Government and Regulatory Affairs at EcoSecurities.
All companies listed by UNFCCC as a CDM Applicant or Designated Operation Entity or a JI Applicant or Accredited Independent Entity are eligible and invited to join the Association as members.
The Founding Members of the DIA are: Spanish Association for Standardisation and Certification (AENOR), China Quality Certification Centre (CQC), ERM Certification and Verification Services Ltd., Japan Consulting Institute (JCI), Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance Ltd (LRQA) and SGS United Kingdom Limited. Several other auditing firms are in the process of joining the Association.
CONTACT DETAILS
Further information:
Michael Fahy, President of the DIA Board, Tel. +41 22 739 9717,Michael.Fahy@sgs.com
Werner Betzenbichler, General Manager and Secretary of the Association, Tel. +49 8161 2346502, werner.betzenbichler@bece-experts.com
Madlen King is the Global Head of Climate Change & Sustainability. She ensures the technical integrity of LRQA climate change and sustainability services and liaises with external bodies and governments on climate change. Within this role, Madlen is responsible for the service design, delivery and maintenance of accreditations for all GHG validation and verification schemes [...]