The Paris Agreement aims to keep the increase in the global average temperature well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to continue action to limit this increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. The European Union aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, committing to become a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions economy, thus achieving so-called "Carbon Neutrality".
Organizations that want to stand out as leaders must contribute to this global goal by cutting their greenhouse gas emissions (and those of their value chain) to zero as quickly as possible.
Carbon neutrality can be applied to any subject, for example to the organization itself or to a product/service for which the organization undertakes to achieve and demonstrate the achievement of the zero quota.
Thanks to its many years of experience and constant commitment to decarbonization issues, RINA has developed its own scheme called "GO-2-CARB0N NEUTRAL" able to enhance today and in the future the constant commitment to carbon neutrality.
Here are the necessary steps:
Pending the release of the ISO standard on climate neutrality (ISO 14068), an Organization will be able to obtain a carbon neutrality certificate based on the RINA proprietary scheme in order to issue the "GO-2-CARB0N NEUTRAL" label.
The RINA regulatory document covers all greenhouse gases and the following categories of requirements:
The Organisation shall define the subject of the Carbon Neutrality Management, its function, its boundaries and the rationale for the selection of this subject.
If the subject comprises only a part of the Organisation, the Organisation shall document the rationale for the selection of this part and describe the activities that are undertaken by the Organisation but are left out.
The organization (Top Management) shall establish, implement, demonstrate and maintain a Commitment to Carbon Neutrality.
The Commitment to Carbon Neutrality shall meet the following requirements:
- Define the Long Term Carbon Neutrality Target;
- is appropriate to the purpose and context of the Organisation, including the nature, scale and greenhouse gases emissions and removals of the subject;
- Provides a framework for setting and maintaining Carbon Neutrality;
- Includes a commitment to reduce the use of offsetting;
- Consider the requirements of relevant stakeholders and of other financial, technical, legal, regulatory and organisational requirements;
- Includes a commitment to continual improvement.
The Organization shall retain documented information on the Commitment to Carbon Neutrality.
The organization shall identify and quantify the emissions, reductions and removals of greenhouse gases associated with the subject.
The quantification shall comply with the principles and requirements set out in the main greenhouse gas standards and programmes.
The organisation shall specify the categories of greenhouse gas emissions/removals considered.
The organization shall develop, implement and maintain a Carbon Neutrality Management Plan that includes:
- The Commitment to Carbon Neutrality;
- The definition of the subject;
- Carbon Neutrality targets;
- The activities foreseen to achieve and maintain the reductions of greenhouse gases emissions, including the assumptions made and justification of the techniques and measures to be implemented to reduce greenhouse gases emissions;
- The types of compensation to be used and the specific greenhouse gas reduction/removal projects selected, with an explanation of the choice.
The organization shall identify and make available the human and infrastructural resources necessary for the implementation, maintenance and monitoring of the Carbon Neutrality Management.
The organisation shall, in the periods specified in the plan, evaluate the performance of the Carbon Neutrality Management Plan and implement corrective actions where appropriate to ensure that the targets are met.
The organization can retire the number of carbon credits required to offset unabated and residual greenhouse gas emissions, to achieve the status of Carbon Neutrality of the subject for the relevant period of time.
Carbon credits used for offsetting unabated and residual greenhouse gases emissions shall meet determined requirements.
The organization shall prepare at least annually a report on Carbon Neutrality that transparently reports on Carbon Neutrality performance consistent with its commitments, and includes various information, including information on the Carbon Neutrality Management Plan.
The organisation can publish only an executive summary of the Carbon Neutrality Report and in this case, it shall ensure that any information contained therein is consistent with the comprehensive Report.
The organisation issues the Carbon Neutrality Declaration to clients or other stakeholders only once all requirements of this Regulatory Document are met.
The Carbon Neutrality Declaration may be assigned to individual physical batches of product and delivered to clients.
RINA Services S.p.A. provides the Organization with a digital platform called DIAS (Data Integrity Audit Service) accessible via web based on the RINA CUBE infrastructure that performs the functions of product traceability management.
The organization shall monitor performance against the Carbon Neutrality Management Plan and if there are deviations in compliance must take the necessary measures.
The frequency of performance evaluation against the plan should be commensurate with the time to achieve Carbon Neutrality.
The organization must set itself the goal of continuously improving the Management of Carbon Neutrality.
What is a carbon credit?
A carbon credit is a certified greenhouse gas credit that can be sold and that represents one tonne of CO2 and results from greenhouse gas emission reductions or greenhouse gas removal improvements.
What is carbon offset?
It is the offsetting of unabated greenhouse gas emissions, including residual greenhouse gas emissions, by withdrawing or cancelling one or more carbon credits in a public registry obtained from greenhouse gas emission reductions or improving the removal of non-entity-related greenhouse gases by or on behalf of the organization.
What are unabated greenhouse gas emissions?
They are greenhouse gas emissions associated with the subject that remain after the activities of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving the removal of greenhouse gases within the subject's boundary.
What are residual greenhouse gas emissions?
They are unabated greenhouse gas emissions that remain after the implementation of all technically and economically feasible greenhouse gas emission reductions, greenhouse gas emission reductions and greenhouse gas removal improvements.