ICET Piloting Voluntary Climate Registry in Southern China

Reporting from Copenhagen

One of the biggest sticking points for China and the U.S. when it comes to a global climate deal is monitoring, reporting, and verifying of greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. wants emerging markets (most notably China) to agree to international regulations. China refuses as a "matter of principle."

In a sparsely attended side-event amid the Copenhagen climate talks this week, a small Chinese NGO described one potential solution: It is piloting a grassroots project for reporting greenhouse gas emissions in China.

Using the model of the California-based Climate Registry, ICET (Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation) is working on a climate and energy registry for businesses and municipalities in Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces in southern China.

The hold-up in negotiations in Copenhagen, one of if not the absolutely toughest sticking points for the last days of negotiations centers on developed country demands that developing countries adhere to the same “measurable, reportable, verifiable" (MRV) standards on emissions reporting that developed countries are expected to uphold.

For developing countries, this is akin to holding them equally responsible for the “historic” greenhouse gas emissions that have damaged the environment. For emerging markets in particular, it is an affront.

“In principle, developing countries don’t have a problem with monitoring and reporting," said Saleemul Huq of the International Institute for Economic Development (IIED). "It’s a question of verification that raises problems. ... Their problem is with international verification because they feel domestic actions should be domestically verified.”

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei argues China's position this way: “There is no MRV internationally negotiated. It is a matter of principle.” To require such standards, he said, “goes against letter and spirit of Bali action plan.”

The Bali Action Plan’s “common but differentiated responsibilities” for climate change instead require from developing countries Nationally Appropriate Mitigating Actions, or NAMAs.

“We’re very serious about … what we have committed to do," He Yafei said. "First of all, it goes through our own legal process. There will be a legal guarantee domestically. It also will have a regime of monitoring verification, statistical supervisions domestically, within china. We are also willing to increase transparency by announcing the results of our actions by reports coming out of China. There are no problems for transparency.”

In precedent, actions by national governments are verified either by parliaments, through parliamentary oversight committees or through national third party entities. What’s most important, explains Huq, is that the process is transparent.

“If it’s done in a transparent manner it doesn’t matter who does it, we know it’s being done, it’s being verified and with developing countries in particular, that’s the kind of thing developing countries need to explore.”

ICET offers a policy advantage because it is “policy neutral,” said Lucia Green-Weiskel, Project Officer for ICET’s Climate Change program. She describes the registry as an “active disclosure” project to expand “transparency” so that “everybody can know more.”

To implement the registry itself, ICET is working with the Climate Registry out of California to construct the software capability to carry out the monitoring and reporting. The Climate Registry is an NGO that since 2002 has been working with organizations, businesses, local governments, and associations throughout the state to inventory, monitor, and report greenhouse gas emissions. The registry is strictly voluntary and provides, according to Robyn Camp, its vice president, a “comparable, consistent, transparent” standard verified by a third party and publicly available through the Internet.