Introducing Materiality & Levels of Assurance into the CDM Process
21st June 2011 by Madlen King
All verification work conducted elsewhere, outside of CDM and JI recognises that verification is not an absolute check as it’s based on a sampling process and that enables the verifiers and the regulators to focus their efforts on the components of an engagement that present the greatest risk to error of the data. And that is essentially those issues that are designed as material and then we do not have to waste unnecessary time addressing issues that are immaterial meaning that they have no possibility of having a significant impact on the final figure. So what tends to happen in these schemes is the materiality level will be set, such as a 5% materiality level and that means that there is no risk of there being an error outside of the data that has been checked that is greater than 5% of the total figure. So we hope very much that materiality and a level of assurance will be implemented into the CDM process because with the introduction of those concepts it would greatly improve both the efficiency and the effectiveness of validations and verifications but would also – through the Executive Board – improve that of the registration process and the issuance process as well.
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 [...]