Emissions Trading Standards

Standards Australia (SA) is holding free forums in Sydney and Canberra in October on standards for Australia's National Emissions Trading Scheme. Also ICT standards could be very useful, as for example XML based e-commerce transaction formats for trading and standard formats for reporting and audit using ebXML. ACX Electronic Emissions Trading Platform (EETP) is already running.

As SA point out, there are existing standards which could be used as part of a scheme for the benefit of business and policy implementations. In particular there is the ISO 14000 series of environmental management standards, including:

1. ISO 14064-1:2006, Greenhouse gases – Part 1: Specification with guidance at the organization level for the quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals.
2. ISO 14064-2:2006, Greenhouse gases – Part 2: Specification with guidance at the project level for the quantification, monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emission reductions and removal enhancements.
3. ISO 14064-3:2006, Greenhouse gases – Part 3: Specification with guidance for the validation and verification of greenhouse gas assertion
   

The forum panel will include the Secretary General of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Australasian Emissions Trading Forum, Australian Industry Group, National Association of Testing Authority (NATA) and the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board.

For a carbon emissions exchange to operate effectively and efficiently it needs to be built on a solid, authoritative and harmonised system of international Standards and related technical infrastructure.

Many of these Standards already exist and Standards Australia will hold forums in Sydney and Canberra to discuss how they can contribute to Australia's National Emissions Trading Scheme and where new Standards could play a role.

These forums are in response to growing concerns related to climate change and the Prime Ministerial Task Group on Emissions Trading Report published a report on 31 May 2007 emphasising the critical importance of establishing an Emissions Trading Scheme in Australia by 2012.

The Sydney event will focus on opportunities and challenges for business and the Canberra event will concentrate on emerging emissions Standards and their policy implications. ...

We invite you to join us in discussing the opportunities, challenges and the introduction of these Standards. ...

From: Emissions Trading Standards Round-Table, Standards Australia, October 2007

See Books on:

• Emissions Trading
• ISO 14000 environmental management standards
• environmental management