Measurement or Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV)
Under the Kyoto Protocol, an Emissions Trading System (ETS), requires emission measurement, estimation of the impact of climate actions, reporting the results of activities, and verification of the data to make sure they are correct and complete. This process is known as Measurement, Reporting, and Verification.
Measurement means scaling of emissions, reductions, or other results and estimating based on measure-related data. Reporting indicates the demonstration and submission of data and detailed analysis. Verification refers to the assessment of the emissions, reductions, and other data measured and reported. MRV requires six characteristics as follows: transparency, comparability, reliability, usefulness, timeliness, and completeness.
Data acquisition, handling, processing and storage across various phases of the MRV process should enable a greater degree of standardization, digitization and automation.
Principles
The application of the following guiding principles helps build the confidence and trust in the MRV system. The guiding principles that underpin the Digitalized MRV System are the same as those that have been cited in the international standards: ISO-14064, IPCC Guidelines, CDM Project Standard, The Gold Standard and Verra: Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), and could be summarized as per the following characteristics:
- Relevance: to select the greenhouse gas (GHG) sources, GHG sinks, GHG reservoirs, data, methodologies and all other information that is appropriate to the needs of the intended user.
- Completeness: to include all relevant GHG sources and sinks, and information to support compliance with all requirements.
- Consistency: to enable meaningful comparisons in project activity-related information.
- Accuracy and conservativeness: to reduce bias and uncertainties as far as it is practical/cost-effective, or otherwise use conservative assumptions, values and procedures to ensure that GHG emission reductions or net anthropogenic GHG removals are not overestimated.
- Transparency: Disclose sufficient and appropriate project activity-related information in a truthful manner to allow intended users to make decisions with reasonable confidence. However, proprietary or confidential information should not be disclosed without the written consent of the provider of the information, except as required by national law.
Standards
A clear understanding of the key data that is required to be measured and monitored, the standard, and the associated methodology for calculating the environmental impact to be adopted, are essential to perform consistent and accurate reporting that could be compared and transparently verified.
- Standard: represents the key data required to be measured, monitored and reported which is the basis for submitting a claim based on the data.
- Methodology or Protocol: represents the technique or method used to collect and validate and verify the data the standard requires in order to submit and have a claim verified.
In compliance markets, the annual procedure for monitoring, reporting and verifying (MRV), together with all the associated processes, is known as the ETS compliance cycle. In voluntary markets standards can be adapted to more accurate and timely data collection to increase the frequency of the MRV process.
MRV Framework
An MRV process is used in both the determination of emissions as well as reductions and removals, which lends itself toward reuse. A generic, modular IWA MRV framework can be used to describe the MRV process with interchangeable parts (Type Standards, Methodology, Participants in Roles, etc.) consists of the following entities, roles and steps:
- Entities:
- Verification Standard - has a protocol or methodology version for the scope and type of benefit or disclosure being made, i.e., Forestry & Land Use, Afforestation/Reforestation OR Agriculture, Manure Methane Digester. This standard describes the MRV technical specifications as to what data is required and when.
- A Benefit Claim Token - is a tokenized benefit claim issued by a MBP
- Verification Contract - the MRV agreement between an EP, VVB and a Standard Registry for the EP to submit benefit claims, the VVB to validate and verify the claims and the Standard Registry to issue credits and/or tokens based on the results.
- Roles:
- Ecological Project or Program Owner
- Modular Benefit Project Developer
- Modular Benefit Project Sponsor
- Validation and Verification Body (VVB)
- Standard Registry
- Steps:
- MBP Developer determines the appropriate standard for the type of activity they will be conducting to be able to issue benefit claims for.
- A contractual agreement between the MBP Developer, VVB and Standard Registry to conduct the MRV process that should result in the creation of tokenized value representing the verified benefit derived from the MBP. …