Verification of Forest-based Carbon Projects Sebastian Hetsch Carbon Management Service TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH Roundtable on Validation and Verification of LULUCF Projects 25 August 2009

TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH  Department in the TÜV SÜD Industry Service  50 Professionals HQ (Munich)  Worldwide >100 Auditors  Active in CDM Projects (all 15 scopes), Renewable Energy and GHG Inventory Carbon Management Service TÜV SÜD

TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH “Verification is the periodic independent review and ex-post determination by the designated operational entity of the monitored reductions… during the verification period. Certification is the written assurance …” (Marrakech Accords) Verification Pre-condition for issuance of CERs Assessment of conformity with registered monitoring plan and CDM guidelines Shifts liability of issuance for non-valid CERs to the operational entity

TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH Difference to other CDM projects: Late start of projects lead to late start of verification Long verification cycle Limited experience in verification Basis of verification is forest inventory Experience in AR-Verification

TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH Six Reasons for Verification Headaches Verification

TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH DATA MANAGEMENT: Long list of monitoring parameters (old methodologies) Parameters defined in Monitoring Plan are not monitored Lack of consistency during the entire reporting period POTENTIAL SOLUTION: Initial verification Definition of procedures (SOPs) in Monitoring Plan Reason #6 for Verification Headaches

TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH Reason #5 for Verification Headaches QUALITY MANAGEMENT: Lack of a quality assurance and quality control system Lack of understanding in project team of what is required for CDM SOLUTION: Implementation of QA/QC and quality management systems Clear definition of roles and responsibilities

TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH Reason #4 for Verification Headaches UNCERTAINTY, ACCURACY & PRECISION: Precision can only be determined ex-post, after sampling Unclear guidelines in many meths on how to deal with uncertainty and accuracy SOLUTION: If high variance either more samples or conservative estimate for the mean carbon stock in the area / stratum Improved guidelines on uncertainty and accuracy

TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH Reason #3 for Verification Headaches UNDERDELIVERY OF ESTIMATED AMOUNTS: Too optimistic growth models Calamities / mortality Less reforested area than originally planned SOLUTION: Be conservative Site classification important Use of actual country-specific or project-specific values rather than default values

TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH Reason #2 for Verification Headaches PROJECTS NOT IMPLEMENTED AS PLANNED: Different species composition Time delays (Validated-related problem, poor validation) SOLUTION: Initial verification Clearer guidelines from EB on how to deal with such issues More careful preparation of the Monitoring Plan in the PDD

TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH Reason #1 for Verification Headaches

Thank you for your attention Sebastian Hetsch TÜV SÜD - Carbon Management Service