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INTRODUCTION
LETTER
UPDATES BY
ISSUE AREA
- ISO
Prepares for the Development of Its Social Responsibility Standard
-
ISO's Water Committee Obtains More Feedback from Developing Countries
- ISO's Greenhouse Gas Accounting Standards Moving
Forward
- Miscellaneous
News
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE
Dear
INNI member,
We're pleased to send you this 7th issue of the International
NGO Network on ISO Online Update. As you will see below, as 2004
nears its end, there have been some significant developments within
ISO circles.
Also, we've added a new "Have
Your Voice Heard" section on the INNI website to help facilitate
your ability to provide input directly to ISO on its standards activities.
There, you will find contact information for the ISO national member
body representing your country, as well as for key officials responsible
for the various standards tracked within the INNI. We encourage
you to check it out!
Please pass this bulletin on to
others in the NGO community who you believe might be interested
in (or affected by) ISO's work in these areas.
As always, feel free to email us
at inni@pacinst.org with any
comments or feedback you may have.
Sincerely,
Jason
Morrison
Pacific Institute
PS
For those new to the INNI, more general information about the initiative,
past issues of the INNI Online Update, and supplementary and background
material on the topics we cover can be found on the
INNI website.
UPDATES BY ISSUE AREA
ISO Prepares for the Development
of Its Social Responsibility Standard
News Update:
Since its June 2004 decision to move forward with an international
standard on Social Responsibility (SR), ISO's Technical Management
Board (TMB), the senior management body overseeing the SR initiative,
has been actively preparing for the formal launch of the Working
Group (WG) that will carry out the standard's development. In September,
the TMB assigned Brazil and Sweden the co-leadership of the WG,
and it also finalized and circulated the official New
Work Item Proposal (NWIP) for the SR standard, which is to be
voted on by ISO member bodies during a three-month ballot period
ending January 7th, 2005. Considering the broad support shown for
the SR initiative at ISO's international conference in June 2004,
approval of the NWIP by the member bodies is all but certain. (Approval
only requires a simple majority of member countries voting and a
commitment by at least five members to participate actively in the
work.) The expected publication date of the new standard, dubbed
ISO 26000, is set for 2007.
Along with the NWIP, the TMB also issued two documents
that laid out specific operational procedures for the development
of the SR standard. In the documents, the TMB specified that member
bodies wishing to participate in the work should nominate a maximum
of six experts, one for each of the following stakeholder categories:
industry, government, labor, consumer, non-governmental organization,
and others. Members are allowed some flexibility on how they establish
their delegation, but are expected to have no more than two experts
form the same category. The TMB also requested member bodies to
provide a brief profile of the nominated experts, in order to ensure
their appropriate assignment of tasks within the WG. Member bodies
have also been asked to establish national "mirror committees"
to formulate national positions on the drafts developed by the WG.
However, no specific requirements were given by the TMB for how
balanced stakeholder participation was to be established within
national mirror committees.
Along with the member countries, ISO will invite a
number of international organizations to participate as "liaison
organizations," with each allowed to nominate two experts.
Other interested international or broadly-based regional organizations
may participate if approved by the TMB. Under the normal ISO rules,
liaison organizations cannot vote on the standard's progression,
even though the ISO rule states that the "full and formal backing
of the liaison organizations" is required. However, the TMB,
in its SR standard procedures document, states that ISO will explicitly
implement the "formal backing" provision at both the Draft
International Standard and Final Draft International Standard approval
stages. It is however still not clear how exactly the WG will carry
out this commitment.
These new procedures specific to this standard are
in line with the Advisory Group's recommendation and the ISO Council
resolution issued after the international SR conference that set
the objective of the full and balanced stakeholder participation
in the SR standard development process.
The TMB and newly appointed leadership of the WG are
presently working on a draft proposal for the structure of the new
standard (and consequently the WG itself). The proposal, as well
as the invitation to the first WG plenary meeting, likely to be
held in Brazil in March 2005, is expected to be sent out to the
member countries in December 2004.
Analysis:
It's way too early to attempt to assess whether ISO's SR guidance
standard will prove value-adding or detrimental to existing CSR
efforts. At worst, ISO's standard could serve as a competitor for
more stringent NGO-led CSR initiatives, or could include provisions
that contradict existing CSR protocols or standards. At best, it
could serve as a stand-alone tool for improving an organization's
SR performance and/or a framework for managing its various SR commitments,
obligations, and responsibility more effectively. This open question
of where the standard will end up will likely hinge upon whether
NGOs participate in sufficient numbers to influence the outcome.
Collectively, the manner in which ISO has launched
its initiative on Social Responsibility represents a positive and
notable step forward for the organization. And even though it remains
to be seen how the TMB's suggested procedural changes will be implemented
by the WG, the proposals themselves represent a precedent-setting
emphasis on balanced stakeholder participation, which is a praiseworthy
development for ISO. We hope ISO's SR experience will pave the way
for broader and permanent mechanisms that promote a more equitable
balance of interests in standards development.
Background:
ISO began moving into the area of Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) in September 2002 when its governing body, the ISO Council,
voted to establish an advisory group to explore the feasibility
and desirability of creating CSR standards. By June 2004, after
having reviewed the report developed by the advisory group, as well
as the feedback gathered at the international CSR conference, the
ISO TMB decided to develop a guidance document in the area of Social
Responsibility.
More
information
ISO's Water Committee Obtains More Feedback from Developing Countries
News Update:
Technical Committee 224, the TC developing ISO's water management
standards, held its 4th plenary meeting in Rabat, Morocco, September
26-29, 2004. The purpose of the meeting was twofold: 1) to receive
input from two preparatory meetings organized to gather developing
country input on TC 224's work, 2) to set the course for the further
development of its three-part draft standard. Leading up to Rabat,
one of the forums was held in August 2004 in Puerto Rico, and another
in Marrakech immediately prior to the Rabat meeting. TC 224's Working
Groups (WGs) did not meet in Rabat, but will convene again in January
2005 to implement the TC's overall guidance vis-à-vis harmonization
and structure of the three parts of the standard, to incorporate
comments submitted by the TC's membership during an "informal
consultation," and to consider the input produced during the
two developing country forums. Subsequent to the January WG meetings,
a newly created editing group within TC 224 will review the drafts
produced to ensure consistency in their terminology and style. The
editing group will then prepare the first Committee Draft (CD) to
be circulated to member bodies by March 2005 for comment.
The central focus of the Rabat plenary was how best
to structure, harmonize, and move forward with development of the
three-part standard. Below are the major decisions taken by the
TC during the meeting:
· Consensus was reached that more consistency
is needed between the three parts of the standard, and in particular
between the parts addressing water supply services (WG3) and wastewater
services (WG4). In order to achieve improved alignment in structure,
content, and level of detail, WG3 and WG4 will hold their first
joint meeting in January 2005.
· Titles of the WG3 and WG4 documents were revised to be
more aligned:
o Service activities relating to drinking water and wastewater -
Guidelines for the management and assessment of drinking water services
(WG3)
o Service activities relating to drinking water and wastewater -
Guidelines for the management and assessment of wastewater services
(WG4)
· The group decided to keep separate documents for the drinking
water and wastewater parts of the standard, following input from
developing country members that the water and wastewater service
providers in their countries are separate entities.
· The TC agreed the standard should include stand-alone/on-site
drinking water and wastewater systems and that revisions should
be made in the three parts accordingly.
· A developing countries ad hoc group was created to ensure
the applicability of the standard in developing regions of the world.
The group has been mandated to: 1) propose adaptations for the definitions
and Performance Indicators chosen by the different WGs so that they
fit with the situation in developing countries, 2) study the development
of a user's guide for the developing countries, and 3) list and
define the different kinds of water supply and wastewater services
in developing countries and to link them to types of services described
in the WGs drafts. The TC 224 P-membership, O-membership, and liaison
organizations have been asked to propose experts for this group.
· The TC supported the suggestion of the developing countries
to undertake a test of the parts of the draft standard in some cities
from developing countries in conjunction with associations of professionals
and local authorities, before the elevating the standard to the
Draft International Standard (DIS) level (Currently scheduled for
June 2006).
· It was agreed the TC 224 chairman and secretary will contact
the multilateral organizations, such as the World Health Organization
and World Bank, to seek better consistency of TC 224's standard
with their recommendations, directives, and tools.
· The TC will ask the ISO Council to allow developing country
representatives who have an interest in TC 224's work (but who are
from a country not officially a member of the TC) to attend meetings.
These individuals would attend TC 224 meetings as observers on their
own, not as part of another P-member, O-member, or liaison organization's
delegation.
The next TC 224 plenary meeting will be held from
October 18-21 in Berlin, Germany, to examine comments received on
the CD. The planned date for the publication of the final standard
is now set for July 2007.
Analysis:
The Rabat meeting marked a big step forward in terms of attempting
to improve developing country participation and to ensure global
relevance of the standard. More decisions were taken reflecting
input from the less developed parts of the world than any previous
TC 224 meeting. It is a positive sign that TC 224 has started to
recognize the importance of developing country involvement for this
standard and has taken steps to address the problem of developing
country under representation. We hope ISO will grant TC 224 the
authority it requests to make operational changes that will improve
the quantity and quality of developing country involvement.
Another accomplishment of this meeting was that
the group finally managed to resolve the longstanding lack of alignment/harmonization
between the three parts of draft standard. This issue had been slowing
the development process and causing a serious concern that the standard
would not meet the ISO deadlines for production. Based on the consensus
agreements reached at this meeting, however, it is likely the process
will start to move forward at a more efficient pace.
More
information
ISO's Greenhouse Gas Accounting Standards
Moving Forward
News Update:
ISO TC 207 Working Group (WG) 5 on Climate Change held its 6th meeting
in Buenos Aires, Argentina in early September 2004. The group reviewed
the comments on the second Committee Drafts (CDs) of ISO 14064,
the three-part Greenhouse Gas Quantification, Monitoring, and Reporting
standard, which had been distributed months during the summer. Over
80 participants from 34 member bodies and 7 liaison organizations
participated in the five-day meeting. Significant progress was made
on all three parts of the standard, and TC 207 resolved at its closing
plenary to elevate the documents to Draft International Standards
(DIS). A DIS is the stage at which the three-part standard undergoes
its first review and ballot by the entire ISO membership. Draft
DIS documents based on the work completed at the BA meeting will
be submitted to the ISO Secretariat by the end of November. It is
expected that the three DISs will be distributed to member bodies
for approval and comment in January 2005. Another WG 5 meeting will
be held to discuss the comments and prepare the Final Draft International
Standard (FDIS) by August 2005. The group plans to publish the final
standard in early 2006.
Titles for each of the standard's three parts were
modified in BA. The revised titles are as follows:
ISO 14064 Greenhouse gases
Part 1: Specification with guidance for the quantification and reporting
of emissions and removals from organizations.
Part 2: Specifications with guidance for the quantification, monitoring
and reporting of emission reductions and removal enhancements from
projects.
Part 3: Specifications with guidance for the validation and verification
of assertions.
Analysis:
NGOs expressed generally positive reactions about the progress made
during the Buenos Aires meeting. Many in the NGO community expect
that implementation of the proposed standard will encourage increased
investment in activities that lead to emissions reductions or removal
enhancements during the next decade. The proposed DIS clarifies
a number of issues and will help to ensure that corporate inventories
and project-based activities meeting the standard actually produce
credible environmental benefits.
Nonetheless, some important concerns remain. The Part
1 standard allows companies to self-certify their activities at
the entity level (a process sometimes referred to as "first
party verification"). In addition, companies following the
Part 1 standard may take credit for what are referred to in the
standard as "directed actions". Directed actions are "specific
activities or initiatives, not organized as a GHG project as defined
in Part 2 of ISO 14064, [that are] implemented by an organization
to reduce or prevent direct or indirect GHG emissions or increase
GHG removals." These actions may occur within or outside the
boundaries of the organization. The results of such actions can
be reported in the context of the organization's corporate GHG inventory
but, unlike projects reported under Part 2 of the standard, need
not be monitored or measured by any independent, outside agent.
A number of NGOs expressed concerns that this provision might become
a loophole for unscrupulous companies wishing to claim ISO certification
for actions that do not, in fact, generate measurable environmental
benefits.
In the context of the Part 2 standard, important concerns
were raised concerning the treatment of projects designed for GHG
capture and geological storage as well as projects designed to enhance
biological sequestration of carbon. These are relatively new areas
in which there is only limited international agreement on the definitions
of basic terms. Efforts were made in BA to introduce consistent
definitions across the three parts of the DIS and to make the definitions
of terms used in the ISO standard conform to definitions used by
the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and by the Kyoto
Protocol regime. These efforts were neither wholly successful nor
complete and additional work will be needed to clarify definitional
issues during the process of reviewing the DIS.
NGOs were, in general, satisfied with most of the
text on cross-cutting issues that appears in the introduction to
the Standard. Some concerns were raised suggesting that important
issues related to the treatment of sinks and sequestration were
relegated to annexes (thus relegating them to a role as 'guidance'
to users of the standard) rather than being kept in the body of
the standard itself where they would be viewed as requirements.
One of the unresolved issues coming out of Buenos
Aires involves the future relationship between the ISO 14064 standard
and the WRI/WBCSD Greenhouse Gas Protocol. Some NGOs who came into
BA recognizing that the GHG Protocol had 'cut much of the trail'
for the ISO standard had hoped for an explicit recognition of the
GHG Protocol in the ISO process. In the event, the WRI/WBCSD GHG
Protocol was recognized as an important guidance document that could
help to inform those implementing corporate inventories or project-based
activities, but it was not given formal recognition as a part of
the ISO standard.
Conclusions:
The ISO 140464 standard represents an important step forward in
the efforts of NGOs to encourage investment in GHG emissions-reducing
and removal-enhancement activities. The review process associated
with passage to a DIS allows NGOs one more opportunity to work within
their national mirror groups and promote the implementation of a
credible international standard for quantification, measurement,
and verification of emissions reductions and removal enhancements.
Special attention must be paid at this stage to issues related to
GHG sequestration, capture, and storage to make certain that these
options are handled in a logical manner and in a fashion which is
consistent with the work of the IPCC and the UNFCCC. If the proposed
ISO standard is accepted by the ISO membership and implemented by
companies, it will help to ensure that claims for GHG emissions
reductions and removal enhancements represent real, quantified,
and verifiable actions with significant benefits for the global
environment.
Background:
ISO started to explore the potential of developing climate change-related
standards in 1998, and Technical Committee 207 formally stepped
into the arena in June 2002, when it established Working Group 5.
WG5 was charged with creating a standard for the "measurement,
reporting and verification of entity- and project-level greenhouse
gas emissions."
More
information
Miscellaneous
News
Report on Participation in ISO Standards Development
The Pacific Institute, a non-profit environmental policy research
and advocacy organization (and Administrator for the INNI), has
released a new
report that examines regional and stakeholder representation
in ISO's standards setting activities. Among other findings, the
study empirically verifies that developing countries, civil society,
and government authorities continue to be significantly underrepresented
in standards development despite ISO's attempts to portray its various
measures and programs as having achieved more balanced global and
stakeholder representation.
International Accreditation Forum Releases White
Paper on Relationship Between Regulatory Compliance and ISO 14001
Certification
The International Accreditation Forum (IAF), an association of standards
conformity assessment accreditation bodies worldwide released a
white paper that
examines the relationship between ISO 14001 certification and compliance
with environmental regulations. The paper produced by this sister
organization of ISO identifies the requirements of the standard
that directly relate to regulatory compliance and offers clarification
on how a certification body should evaluate an environmental management
system with respect to legal compliance. The white paper is being
circulated to the IAF membership for a two-month comment period.
ISO Agrees on Road Map for Next Five Years
At is most recent annual General Assembly, ISO member bodies agreed
on the organization's path forward for the next five years. "ISO
Strategic Plan 2005-2010 Standards for a Sustainable World"
sets objectives for the organization and defines the ensuing actions
and results expected. Involvement of a broader range of stakeholders
and improvement of awareness and capacity of developing countries
were identified as two of the seven key goals ISO aims to achieve
in next five years.
ISO Develops Code of Ethics for Its Management
and Members
An ISO Code of Ethics has
been developed to define the ethical behavior ISO expects of its
governance, members and staff, and their responsibilities in delivering
and promoting its standards. The Code provides guidelines in the
areas such as: monitoring ISO's integrity and protecting its image;
implementation and conformity assessment of ISO standards; and promotion
of the fair and effective development of international standards.
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