When will the Joint Implementation (JI) be operational?

Det Norske Veritas (DNV):

The operationalisation of the JI track two was initiated at COP/MOP 1 in December 2005. Track two refers to JI projects hosted by countries that do not have a national system in place for estimating emissions/removals. These projects need to follow procedures set up by the JI Supervisory Committee (JISC) which, among others, include the determination and verification by a so-called Independent Entity (IE) accredited by the JISC.

The newly established committee is currently establishing a system for the accreditation of IEs, i.e. third parties performing determination of JI projects and verifying emission reductions of JI projects. The determination of a JI project is comparable to the validation of a CDM project. The first JI projects are expected to have undergone determination by an accredited IE as early as autumn 2006.

What is the determination all about?

The purpose of the determination is to have an IE assess the project design against the relevant JI criteria, including the UNFCCC criteria: The Kyoto Protocol Article 6 criteria and the JI modalities and procedures as agreed in the Marrakech Accords; and the Host and Sponsor country criteria: Requirements for JI projects are developed by the involved Parties to the Protocol.

More specifically, the determination includes an assessment of the following:

	The project’s eligibility as a JI project;
	The completeness of the project design document (PDD);
	The soundness of the project design;
	The appropriateness of the selected baseline scenario and the demonstration of the project additionality;
	The completeness and appropriateness of the monitoring plan;
	The methodology and assumptions made to estimate the project’s emission reductions; and,
	The operation and maintenance and engineering practices as well as quality assurance procedures to be applied by project operators.

The following graph illustrates the determination process:

Common pitfalls

During its 500 plus validations/determinations, it has become evident that, whereas the validation/determination could be finished in a minimum of five weeks, the average validation/determination takes much longer, at least double the time. Delays occur especially during phase three i.e. during the closing out of so-called Corrective Action Requests. The most common pitfalls are:

	Insufficient explanation for the selection of the baseline scenario: The baseline scenario is the hypothetical situation of what would have happened in the absence of the JI project;
	The definition of the baseline scenario is crucial for assessing the project’s additionality; if it can not be clearly determined that the proposed project scenario is different from the baseline scenario, emission reductions can not be considered additional as required by Article 6 of the Kyoto Protocol and the project is thus not even eligible as a JI project;
	Delays often occur because of the lack of publicly available data needed to calculate project or baseline emissions, such as data on power plants supplying electricity to a grid system which is necessary to determine an electricity grid emission factor; and,
	A clear monitoring plan is needed to guarantee the verifiability of the actual emission reductions. A good plan details each greenhouse gas to be measured, the type of measurement equipment used, the frequency of the measurement, the calibration of the measurement equipment and the procedure to record measurements and to archive the records. An experienced IE will focus on these details because of their importance for the later verification; emission reductions that are not verifiable need to be deducted from the total amount of Energy Research Units (ERUs).

Commissioned by UNEP, DNV (Det Norske Veritas) has developed the Clean Development Mechanism PDD Guidebook: Navigating the Pitfalls, where the above common shortcomings and further pitfalls and their consequences, as well as recommendations to overcome them, are discussed in more detail. The guidebook was released for COP/MOP 1 in Montreal in December 2005 and is available at www.cd4cdm.org.

In order to avoid lengthy delays during the determination the PDD may be subject to a so-called pre-determination. The pre-determination comprises of an initial desk review of the draft PDD, without the PDD being published for the thirty days stakeholder period. The outcome of a pre-determination is a short report by the IE, the completeness of the information provided on the project’s design, baseline determination and monitoring plan. It gives assurance to the project developer and the investor as well as the involved Parties that the project is likely to qualify as a JI project and sufficient information is available to allow for a later determination.

DNV is a major certification body and has, since 1864, focused on third party services in the maritime, oil & gas, process, transport and energy sectors. DNV is looking back on 15 years of experience with greenhouse gas accounting and verification and has been crucial in the operationalisation of the CDM and JI. DNV also participates in several initiatives on CO2 capture and storage and hydrogen applications with the objective of making these new technology solutions acceptable long-term solutions for mitigating climate change.

Susanne Haefeli-Hestvik, Michael Lehmann and Mari Grooss Viddal Tel.: +47-6757 7158 Email: climatechange@dnv.com Web: www.dnv.com/certification/climatechange