International carbon neutral standard ISO-14068 released!

Climate change caused by human activity has been identified as one of the greatest challenges facing the world and will continue to affect businesses and citizens for decades to come.

Climate change has implications for both human and natural systems and is likely to have significant impacts on resource availability, economic activity, biodiversity and human well-being. To this end, the public and private sectors are developing and implementing international, regional, national and local initiatives to mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) in the Earth's atmosphere and to promote adaptation to climate change.

An effective and transformative response to the urgent threat of climate change is needed, based on the best available scientific knowledge. ISO develops documents that support the translation of scientific knowledge into tools that will help combat climate change.

Climate change mitigation initiatives rely on the quantification, monitoring, reporting, verification and verification of greenhouse gas emissions and removals.

The ISO 14060 series of standards provides clarity and consistency for quantifying, monitoring, reporting, validating and verifying GHG emissions and removals as well as carbon neutrality, benefiting organizations, GHG project supporters and stakeholders around the world. Specifically, the use of ISO 14060 series standards:

• Enhancing the credibility and transparency of GHG quantification, monitoring, reporting, verification and verification;

• Contribute to the development and implementation of greenhouse gas management strategies and plans;

• Promote the development and implementation of mitigation actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or enhance greenhouse gas removals;

• Promote the ability to track the performance and progress of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions or increases in greenhouse gas removals or both;

• Actions needed to support sustainable development and achieve a low carbon economy.

Applications of the ISO 14060 series include:

• Corporate decisions, such as identifying GHG reduction opportunities and improving profitability by reducing energy consumption;
• Risk management, such as identification and management of climate risks and opportunities;
• Voluntary initiatives, such as participation in voluntary greenhouse gas schemes or sustainability reporting initiatives;
• Greenhouse gas markets, such as the buying and selling of greenhouse gas allowances or credits;
• Regulatory/governmental greenhouse gas programs, such as early action credits, agreements, or national and local reporting initiatives.
• The following summarizes each document in the ISO 14060 series of standards:
• ISO 14064-1 details the principles and requirements for designing, developing, managing and reporting organization-level GHG inventories. It includes determining GHG emission and removal boundaries, quantifying an organization's GHG emission and removal, and identifying requirements for specific organizational actions or activities aimed at improving GHG management. It also includes requirements and guidance on inventory quality management, reporting, internal audits, and the organization's responsibility in validation activities.
• ISO 14064-2 details the principles and requirements for determining baseline scenarios and monitoring, quantifying and reporting project emissions and removals. It focuses on greenhouse gas projects or project-based activities that specifically aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or increase greenhouse gas removal or both. It provides the basis for the validation and verification of greenhouse gas projects.
• ISO 14064-3 details the requirements for validating GHG claims related to GHG inventories, GHG projects and the carbon footprint of products. It describes the process of validation or validation, including validation or validation plans, evaluation procedures, and evaluation of GHG claims for organizations, projects, and products.
• ISO 14065 defines requirements for institutions that validate and verify greenhouse gas claims. Its requirements cover impartiality, competence, communication, verification and verification processes, appeals, complaints, and the management system of the verification and verification body. It can be used as the basis for accreditation and other forms of accreditation related to the impartiality, competence and consistency of verification and verification bodies.
• ISO 14066 specifies the competency requirements for validation teams and validation teams. It includes principles and specifies capability requirements based on tasks that the validation team or validation team must be able to perform.
• ISO 14067 defines principles, requirements and guidelines for quantifying the carbon footprint of products, such as goods or services, including buildings and activities. It describes the process of quantifying greenhouse gas emissions associated with the stages of a product's life cycle, beginning with resource extraction and raw material procurement and extending through the production, use and end-of-life stages of the product.
• ISO/TS 14064-4 1 Helps users apply ISO 14064-1, providing guidance and examples to improve the transparency of emissions quantification and reporting.

ISO 14068-1 (this document) - Carbon neutrality

This document aims to build on existing international standards that address the quantification, reporting, verification and verification of greenhouse gases, such as ISO 14064-1, ISO 14064-3 and ISO 14067. Figure 1 illustrates the relationship of documents in the ISO 14060 series of greenhouse gas standards and some related international standards for environmental labelling and declarations.

Figure 1 - ISO 14068-1 (this document) in relation to other international standards

This document provides a standardized approach to achieving and demonstrating carbon neutrality. It applies to subjects, i.e. organizations and products (e.g. goods and services, including events and buildings).

The hierarchical approach presented in this document prioritizes actions that reduce direct and indirect GHG emissions and enhance the removal of GHGS by agents, and is used only for offsetting the carbon footprint remaining after these actions.

Greenhouse gas emissions avoided, such as through the use of goods or services, are not discussed in this document, but they can also play a role in an organization's strategy to support the goal of global carbon neutrality. The greenhouse gas emissions avoided reflect the organization's efforts to provide a low-carbon product or solution.

Quantification, monitoring and reporting related to GHG projects whose primary purpose is to reduce GHG emissions or increase GHG removal are also outside the scope of this document.

Making organizations and products carbon neutral requires actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase greenhouse gas removal, and can therefore help support countries in meeting their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCS) and achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Carbon neutral and net zero greenhouse gas emissions

Carbon neutrality (as defined in this document) and net zero greenhouse gas emissions are related concepts. Globally, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2 defines these terms as equivalent, both referring to situations in which anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and anthropogenic greenhouse gas removals are in balance over a given period of time. In this document, this scenario is referred to as "net zero global greenhouse gas emissions".

On a sub-global scale, carbon neutrality is commonly used in organizations and products, and achieving carbon neutrality usually involves offsetting to offset the carbon footprint of the subject. In this document, carbon neutrality is considered as a path to continuous improvement that reduces an entity's carbon footprint by implementing abatement and removal enhancement activities, so that the need for offsets decreases over time.

On a sub-global scale, net zero greenhouse gas emissions generally apply to regions (e.g., countries, municipalities) and organizations, but not to products. Net zero greenhouse gas emissions are defined and assessed differently in different contexts. For organizations, net zero greenhouse gas emissions are generally considered to be a situation where emissions have been reduced, only residual emissions are retained, and offsets are limited to removal credits.

In the case of territories, GHG net zero emissions assessments take into account emissions and removals under the territory's direct control or jurisdiction, sometimes excluding offsets.

This document sets out the principles, requirements and guidelines for achieving and demonstrating carbon neutrality by quantifying, reducing and offsetting carbon footprints.

This document defines the terms associated with carbon neutrality and provides guidance on the actions needed to achieve and demonstrate carbon neutrality. By convention, it uses the word "carbon" to refer to all greenhouse gases (GHGS) in composite expressions such as "carbon neutral."

It applies to a wide range of topics, such as organizations (including companies, local authorities, and financial institutions) and products (goods or services, including buildings and events). It does not apply to territories (such as regions, countries, states or cities), including the use of the Convention by signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) when reporting national results for the purposes of the Convention.

This document establishes a carbon neutral hierarchy in which GHG reductions (direct and indirect) and GHG removal enhancements within the value chain take precedence over offsets. It includes requirements for a carbon neutral commitment and a carbon neutral declaration.

This document is greenhouse gas programme neutral. If a GHG plan is applicable, the requirements of that GHG plan are in addition to the requirements of this document.