"SANAS accreditation will provide formal recognition that accredited GHG validation and verification bodies are competent to perform GHG validation and verification," said Ron Josias, CEO of SANAS.
Josias said that the local accreditation of GHG validation and verification bodies will facilitate the development of a competent group of South Africa-based greenhouse gas validators and verifiers.
"This, in turn, may offer affordable verification opportunities for carbon footprint (under ISO14064-1), which will be useful when considering mandatory GHG reporting and in evaluating the implications of the proposed carbon tax."
"It will also establishes a conformity assessment framework that may assist in making possible a local verified emission reductions (VERs) trading scheme through verification of emission reduction projects (ISO 14064-2) and incentivise companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with governmental commitment in a transparent, complete and consistent way," Josias said.
Local accreditation will reduce the costs associated with validation and verification of greenhouse gas-reducing projects. This is because validation and verification services are often obtained from abroad.
"The current cost of international verification is out of reach for most small-to-medium projects in South Africa, therefore excluding a number of beneficial and credible projects. With the SANAS accreditation programme now in place, local accredited GHG verifiers are now available," said Harmke Immink, a director of Promethium Carbon, a carbon advisory firm.
"Large volumes of emission reductions are traded under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which is a bureaucratic and costly scheme. The process involves international auditors accredited by the UN, and projects usually take at least one year to be registered."
In parallel with the CDM, the voluntary verified emission reductions (VER) trading units are generated through projects such as the implementation of solar geysers, fuel switches, solar cookers and energy-efficiency projects.
"These VERs are generally used to offset flights, conferences, fruit and wine exports, emissions from corporate offices and for use in annual reports.
"Offsets are listed in the 2012 budget speech as a way of reducing carbon tax though an offsetting mechanism."
The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) is a non-for-profit organisation that exists to verify and issue carbon credits (http://v-c-s.org). The other main standard within the voluntary market is the Gold Standard (www.cdmgoldstandard.org).
These two standards provide assurance for buyers of VERs. Only credits issued by these two organisations are considered to be a suitable investment vehicle for private investors. This is because the projects have met certain criteria set out by either the VCS or the Gold Standard.
These criteria ensure the uniqueness of the credit, ensuring that the project will have permanent benefit, not just the temporary displacement of emissions, but also accurately measuring the benefits of the project.
The new ISO14065 standard, available electronically from SABS, requires verification service providers to maintain a management system and demonstrate competence against three main requirements.
Firstly, understanding of the specific GHG programme and standard, including the verification methodology; secondly, competency in having sufficient technical expertise to assess GHG projects and organisation; and, thirdly, competence in data- and information-auditing expertise in assessing the GHG assertion.
"Relative to the size and cost of a GHG inventory verification, SANAS now offers an affordable accreditation against international agreed requirements as contained in the ISO standard," said Immink.
