Mission

The mission and goals of the Climate Action and Accounting SIG includes " to turn this network into action under a common open source project that defines shared protocols, standards, and platform tools for a globally integrated climate accounting system to be operationalized. "

This working group will focus particularly on the "protocols and standards" that will enable consistent climate accounting MRV is often used to convey not only the accounting, but more broadly measurement, reporting and verification.  

•  [Tom comment: ISO produces many types of standards-related products, however it is mainly known as an SDO that creates auditable  standards for conformity assessment. Such standards are typically relatively short (e.g. 20 pages). In contrast, the GHG Corporate Protocol (2001), which was followed by a suite of GHGPs, started as a "how to guidebook" that are typically relatively long (e.g. 100+ pages). In 2005, the GHGP adopted ISO-style language and requirements content to complement the guidance content. In addition to differentiating protocols and standards (there are several types of standards), CDM Methodologies  and IPCC Guidelines  are additional variations of "standards"]

Scope

This section will eventually be much shorter. During the formation period, the text under this heading serves to guide the discussion on especially the mission, scope and deliverables. Once sufficient concensus has been reached, these discussions will be moved to an appropriate location and the concensus formulations kept here

1. Develop and populate a taxonomy of available accounting standards in a way relevant to the mission of the CA2SIG

2. Develop a consistent way to capture existing certifications as a transaction in any of the Hyperledger blockchain frameworks

3. Implement a proof-of-concept chain from aggregating, reporting and possibly trading certified outcomes.

4. Develop and populate a taxonomy of available  methodologies  in a way relevant to the mission of the CA2SIG

5. Implement a proof-of-concept transactional chain containing transaction processors and data structures and identifiers

6. Develop and populate a taxonomy of available certification processes

7. Implement a proof-of-concept transactional chain for verification / certification

8. Develop one vertically intergrated use case

Clarification:

What do we mean by 'standards'?

The term 'standard' is used in a variety of contexts. Even within the scope of the CA2SIG a variety of things are denoted with the term 'standard'. These include:

• Technical standards like those of the W3C 

• Accounting standards, including:

  • Greenhouse Gas Protocol  

  • the standards used by the UNFCCC (e.g. the CDM project standard)

  • voluntary standards like the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), the Gold Standard  Social Carbon

  • Standard for entity  level accounting within various scopes

  • Standards for local/regional/national inventories

• Environmental performance standards like those of the IFC

• Standards related to products

• Standards for accounting for policy impacts

What will the working group deliver and who will use it?

There are other bodies the create the types of standards mentioned above. This working group will be more concerned with how such standards themselves and compliance to these standards are encoded and captured in a distrubuted ledger an how such representations can be used. 

Use cases

• Personal climate footprinting

• Product/ Service footprinting

• Entity accounting (scope 1, 2 and 3)

• Regional accounting

• Policy impact assessments

What is standardised?

• Entities

• Activities and events

• Agency

• Counterfactuals

What is the relationship between standards, authority and freedom in the context of the work of the CA2SIG?

The CA2SIG will not act as an authority that compels entitie to engage in specific actions. 

The standards to be generated by this working group will enable agents to communicate clearly about the implications of their actions. This will enables others to have a clear understanding of the state of affairs regading the activities and states covered by the standards. 

How will we translate standards into software?

Find the most generic articulation of what a standard, method and transaction is and develop protobuffer examples of each

• Namespaced merkle tree 

• Protobuf examples

Taxonomy of protocols and standards

Technical Methodologies

These are "algorithms" for calculating carbon emissions:

• Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) - this is the standard analytical method for calculating the carbon emissions of a product through its lifecycle.  OpenLCA is an open source life cycle analysis software.
• Product Category Rules (PCR) - these rules define how life cycle analysis should be performed based on the type of product.  See this article for one example of the relationship between LCA, PCR, and EPD.

Accounting Standards

These are standards for calculating and disclosing carbon emissions.

General Standards

• Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) - comprehensive disclosure of the full environmental impact of a product, where carbon footprint is just one variable.  This seems to be used more commonly in building and construction, for example for LEED certifications, but is referenced as a potential source for the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.  See an example of a construction material's EPD and an elevator's EPD.
• Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG) - this is a comprehensive set of standards for measuring greenhouse gas emissions for a company or a product.  It is the base standard for many "carbon neutrality" certifications.
• Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) - these are voluntary disclosures that companies could make through a series of surveys.  They are used by large companies to disclosure carbon emissions to the investor community.

Industry Specific Standards

• Whole Building Lifecycle Assessment - Specific to buildings and construction, these standards are used to calculate the carbon content of a building based on its construction and materials.  This is important because most of the carbon footprint of buildings is during the construction rather than the operation of the building.  Click here for more about embodied carbon.

Certifications based on Accounting standards

These are certifications based on accounting standards, such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol:

• Carbon Neutral - developed and owned by Natural Capital Partners, which has 20 years of experience and implemented this standard for 300 companies in 33 countries. 
• PAS 2060 - developed by the British Standards Institute (BSI) as an open standard.
• Climate Neutral - a new standard developed by entrepreneurs in the fashion industry and currently run by a nonprofit group.  Their goal is to make it easier for companies to take climate action and become carbon neutral.

Carbon Offsets

These are standards for carbon offsets and could in turn be divided into sub-categories:

Mandatory

Mandatory offsets are those based on international treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol or the Paris Agreement, or by government regulations such as those in the European Union or California.  (I'll leave this category to someone who has more expertise.)

Voluntary

Voluntary offsets are those purchased by companies and individuals to offset their emissions.  There are many standards that govern voluntary offsets – some of the best known ones include:

• Gold Standard
• Verified Carbon Standard  

Glossary and definitions

Meetings

All Hyperledger meetings are run covered by the following Antitrust Policy.

Meeting Agendas

Meeting Notes