In order to limit the rapid growth of greenhouse gas emissions, China has decided to implement seven pilot schemes for emissions trading, which are expected to start operating in 2013, with a view to implementing a national scheme in the future. To support this effort, the EU-China Exchange on Challenges and Best Practices in ETS brought together emissions trading experts from Europe and representatives from the different pilot schemes. Benjamin Görlach, Senior Fellow at the Ecologic Institute, gave a presentation and co-chaired a workshop on how to design robust structures for monitoring, reporting, verification and accreditation.

The third in a series of three workshops addressed the issue of Monitoring, Reporting, Verification and Accreditation (MRVA), which play a crucial role in ensuring the credibility and effectiveness of an ETS. Since the ETS is a politically created market, the regulator has to ensure that the operators comply with all their obligations – first and foremost to accurately measure and to report on their emissions. Independent third-party verification by an accredited verifier has proven effective in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme to guarantee the accuracy of the reported emissions. Taking into account the European experience, the workshop participants discussed which structures would be needed for effective and reliable MRVA in the six Chinese pilot trading schemes, and on which existing data collection systems these could build.