International Reducing CO2 Emissions Day, which is held on 28 January, aims to raise awareness of climate change and its environmental impact. Therefore, recognising, measuring and offsetting GHG emissions associated with processes, facilities, products and projects is part of many national and supranational organizations' sustainability policies, a field where bodies accredited by ENAC play a fundamental role in providing reliable emission estimations.

In order to make decisions regarding emissions-generating activities it is necessary to, first, make an inventory of the quality of emitted or will be emitted greenhouse gases, (in the case of projects), as a direct or indirect effect of the organisation's activity. They then calculate and declare it in accordance with specific normative documents or references (ISO international standards or specific scheme owner standards).

It is essential that this calculation - embodied in a report, statement or such - is evaluated by an external organization with adequate technical competence to provide added confidence to their veracity. It is here where accredited bodies play an essential role, as they are the only ones to have demonstrated their technical competence to an independent body, in Spain to ENAC, which has strictly assessed them according to the requirements of international ISO 14065 standard.

This recognition of technical competence enables accredited verifiers to provide guarantees as to the accuracy of the statements and verdicts. The increased reliability of the emissions calculation and the improved verification comparability and conditions help develop markets and emission-based businesses.

All this offers the necessary confidence for emissions programme operators and managers, as well as public administrations that fund emissions reduction in one way or another and voluntary offset.

The latest example of the use of accredited emissions verification is at the heart of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), according to which, starting from 2019, all signatory member States will be required to commit those air operators making international flights to measure, review and verify (MRV) emissions of CO2 of those flights. Among its measures, accredited emissions verification is required to be reported annually and offsetting measures taken by air carriers, in order to provide reliable and comparable information from the statements of air operators of more than 70 countries around the world.

Accreditation; an internationally recognized tool

International recognition is another benefit accredited bodies bring to the market. In this regard, the activity of ENAC-accredited greenhouse gas verifiers has recently acquired a global value, since ENAC has become one of the first accreditation bodies to sign the worldwide association of accreditation bodies, (IAF) the International Accreditation Forum’s recognition agreement for this activity.

This signature implies that 27 national accreditation body signatories of the agreement recognise ENAC-accredited greenhouse gas verifiers' reports, thereby reducing technical trade barriers. The agreement includes accreditation bodies from economies such as the United States, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom, among others, and new countries will join in the near future.

At the European level, the European Commission has for years been clearly pushing for verifiers to be accredited, by setting out regulations that only verifiers accredited by a national accreditation body can operate both in the European Emissions Trading Programme, such as Monitoring Inspection Plans and Reports of carbon dioxide emissions generated by shipping (reg. 757/2015).