Measurement, Reporting and Verification and the Mining and Metals Industry
28 November 2011
Implementing transparent and comparable measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) systems is critical to developing credible national climate change policy. This paper analyses different mandatory and voluntary MRV regimes in the mining and metals industry and outlines the different challenges the sector face in estimating GHG emissions.
Summary
- All countries will be required to include provisions in their national climate change plans to measure, report and verify (MRV) their progress in tackling GHG emissions. It is in the interest of all stakeholders for the information to be fully transparent, comparable, robust and consistent.
- Clarifying MRV standards internationally builds confidence and ensures that actions are being implemented and countries are making progress towards their committed targets. A consistent approach to MRV that draws on existing regimes provides transparency to emissions reporting and accounting.
- In the context of differing MRV regimes, the mining and metals industry faces several challenges for estimating GHG emissions: its heterogeneous nature, defining sector boundaries, fugitive emissions source, identifying appropriate and meaningful metrics to reflect the diversity of the sector, different sector classification across jurisdictions and a frequently changing MRV regime.
- Developing MRV guidelines driven by national-level policies will likely lead to a patchwork of different national/regional systems, creating varying rules for industry members to have to adhere to in different jurisdictions. This will complicate compliance measures greatly, with increasing associated costs
- Ensuring MRV guidelines are as consistent and transparent as possible reduces the compliance costs on industry operating globally and allows for more standardized, transparent approaches to MRV which measures progress over time.