Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and map
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: key notions and trade-offs involved in MRVing emissions
- Part I MRV of territorial/jurisdictional emissions
- Part II MRV of industrial sites and entities
- Part III MRV at offset project scale
- 11 Trendsetter for projects: the Clean Development Mechanism
- 12 Case study 1: monitoring requirements for projects reducing N2O emissions from fertilizer use across standards
- 13 Case study 2: monitoring requirements for reforestation and improved forest management projects across standards
- 14 Case study 3: monitoring requirements for fugitive emissions from fuels in the CDM
- 15 Synthesis
- Index
- References
15 - Synthesis
from Part III - MRV at offset project scale
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2015
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and map
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: key notions and trade-offs involved in MRVing emissions
- Part I MRV of territorial/jurisdictional emissions
- Part II MRV of industrial sites and entities
- Part III MRV at offset project scale
- 11 Trendsetter for projects: the Clean Development Mechanism
- 12 Case study 1: monitoring requirements for projects reducing N2O emissions from fertilizer use across standards
- 13 Case study 2: monitoring requirements for reforestation and improved forest management projects across standards
- 14 Case study 3: monitoring requirements for fugitive emissions from fuels in the CDM
- 15 Synthesis
- Index
- References
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:
• What are the MRV requirements?
• What are the costs for entities to meet these requirements?
• Is a flexible trade-off between requirements and costs allowed?
• Is requirements stringency adapted to the amount of emissions at stake (materiality)?
• 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:
• the third party must be accredited by a regulator for GHG emissions audits and this accreditation tends to be sector-specific;
• the third party must assess whether the methods used and the reporting format comply with the relevant guidelines;
• the third party must assess the accuracy, i.e., the absence of bias, of the reported figures;
• 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 CarbonMonitoring, Reporting and Verifying Emissions in the Climate Economy, pp. 510 - 537Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
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