BSI Warns of August Deadline for Emissions Verification

PRESS RELEASE

19 April 2004

The UK Government has announced the end of August 2004 as the deadline for baseline emissions verification for the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in the UK’s National Allocation Plan.

The EU ETS is the world’s first mandatory Green House Gases (GHG) emission cap and trade system. It directly contributes to the EU’s ‘burden sharing’ commitment under the Kyoto Protocol, aiming to reduce the levels of GHG’s from 1990 by 8 per cent.

Each EU Member State must produce a National Allocation Plan to distribute emissions allowances for each of the industry sectors covered. This allocation forms the cap on GHG emissions for every installation. The comparison between this allowance and their actual verified annual emissions position will determine their ability or need to trade.

As data accuracy is crucial, the UK government requires all submitted baseline data to be verified by an independent third party such as BSI. BSI has established a top reputation in the UK ETS and has many high profile clients.

Errol Taylor from BSI management systems says: "This is the first time a supranational body (the EU) has set a mandatory emissions limit on GHGs. It is crucial that the verification of emissions is accurate and undertaken by a reputable, accredited organisation. BSI works with organisations to not only produce accurate data representation, but to also identify ways to continually improve emissions performance."

Baseline verifications cover data from the 1998 –2002 period, with the EU trading scheme commencing on 1st January 2005. Each installation must have its emissions verified annually.

-ENDS-

For more information please contact:

Steven Brassey OR Matthew Flanders on +44 (0)20 7861 3188 in the BSI Press Office serving Europe.

Notes to editors:

Baseline emissions are the average of emissions over the 5 year period 1998-2002, with the lowest level excluded.

Installations covered come from sectors in Annex 1 of the directive, including: