The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) formally stepped into the international climate change arena in June 2002, when it began to develop a new standard on corporate greenhouse gas emissions. ISO Technical Committee 207 established Working Group 5 to create a standard for the "measurement, reporting and verification of entity- and project-level greenhouse gas emissions." The standard is intended to help organizations integrate greenhouse gas emissions into their environmental management systems. In addition, depending upon how the standard is written, it may also assist companies in complying with national climate change regulations, participating in voluntary reporting initiatives, or entering emerging greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trading markets.

ECOLOGIA is an environmental NGO actively participating in the international ISO deliberations that will create the new greenhouse gas measurement standard. ECOLOGIA's participation is guided by the Position Paper that we are developing in consultation with other NGOs. Our position emphasizes 4 core principles: transparency, environmental integrity, alignment with best practice and compatibility with major climate change regimes. In addition to the position paper, ECOLOGIA is developing specific Issue Papers (Entity, Projects and Verification) that will elaborate how the principles should be reflected in each piece of the standard. We also provide updates on the status of the standard under development.

ECOLOGIA Workshop
During two productive days in June, ECOLOGIA brought 9 representatives of NGOs and academia from 8 countries to a meeting in Sweden. At the workshop, funded by the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the participants discussed ways to put the forthcoming ISO greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting standard into practice in developing and transitional countries. The findings from the workshop will be used by Ecologia at the next meeting of ISO TC 207 WG5.

When Boring is Beautiful
The March/April 2004 issue of Orion magazine features an article by Bill McKibben about ECOLOGIA's work with ISO on climate change, titled "When Boring is Beautiful: How Do You Measure Progress on Climate Change?"

ISO TC 207 WG 5 issues CD 2 of the GHG accounting standard
On May 9, 2004, the Secretary of the ISO TC 207 Working Group 5 sent the Committee Draft 2 (CD2) of the ISO 14064 (greenhouse gases) to the ISO National Member Bodies (NMBs) and international liaison organizations. These drafts were prepared as a result of the previous round of comments and consultations following the distribution of Committee Draft 1 in November 2003. Dr. A. Cherp of ECOLOGIA co-facilitated editing of Part 1 of the standard (organizational GHG accounting).

ISO members and observers now have 3 months to provide their formal comments which will be considered at the ISO plenary in Buenos Aires in September 2004. At this meeting, TC 207 may choose to upgrade the status of ISO 14064 to a Draft International Standard (DIS). The CD2 of ISO 14064 are available from the NMBs or directly from ECOLOGIA.