QualiPedia: ISO 14064--Managing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Standards for greenhouse gas accounting and verification

Published: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - 10:48

The ISO 14064 series of standards for greenhouse gas accounting and verification was published March, 1, 2006, by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It is an international standard aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as for emissions trading.

According to ISO, the standard is broken into three parts, focusing on organization, design, and consistency:

• ISO 14064-1—"Greenhouse gases — Part 1: Specification with guidance at the organization level for the quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals."
• ISO 14064-2—"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."
• ISO 14064-3—"Greenhouse gases —Part 3: Specification with guidance for the validation and verification of greenhouse gas assertions."

ISO 14064 is GHG-scheme neutral, meaning that it must maintain relevance to all international policies pertaining to GHG while still being narrow in its application within each policy. It is meant to be flexible enough to apply to a variety of GHG schemes.

It was formulated in 2002 in response to the lack of organization in greenhouse gas management across industries. 

As with all ISO standards, it is voluntary and created based on an agreement made by all interested participants. All ISO standards must be reviewed every five years to determine if any updates are necessary.

Sources:

http://web.ceu.hu/envsci/aleg/research/ISO-EnvFinance110503.pdf

www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref994  

About The Author

Brittany Vogel

Brittany Vogel is a reporter and editor for Quality Digest.