Classification society Bureau Veritas (BV) and commodities industry certification body Climate Neutral Commodity (CNC) are joining forces to support clients as they take action to accelerate the energy and ecological transitions to meet the ambitious decarbonisation targets set by the Paris Agreements.
CNC has defined the first ever certification standard for carbon-neutral transactions and services in the raw materials industry and Bureau Veritas will be the chosen preferred verification body to validate these carbon-neutral commodities. The commodity industry is the main contributor to global greenhouse gases emissions (agriculture and land use: 24%, energy: 35%, mining: 7%, etc). However, a number of ‘green’ commodity actions and transactions are now being developed (LNG, marine fuels, steel, aluminium, cobalt, etc.). CNC and BV will work together to help their clients reduce their carbon footprint.
In concrete terms, CNC has defined an independent and transparent certification protocol to validate climate-neutral commodity transactions (from extraction to delivery or to final consumption) and services (with the ‘Climate Neutral Services’ certification, for transport solutions for example). BV will be Climate Neutral Commodity’s preferred verification body.
CNC is currently working with commodity producers to certify first cradle-to-gate climate neutral oil and minerals transactions in Middle East, Asia and Africa. CNC is also collaborating with maritime companies to issue Climate Neutral Services certification for shipping solutions (i.e. chartering contracts) for vessels in Asia and Europe.
CNC co-founder Paul Sebastien said: “Bureau Veritas is a globally renowned audit, verification and certification services provider in environmental standards for the commodity and maritime industries. It seemed obvious for us to work with Bureau Veritas in order to provide the industry with the best practices in robust certification, in line with our fundamental values of transparency and verification.”
Jacques Pommeraud, BV general director Africa, France and Gov Services, said: “We are very proud of this joint project, which confirms once again that decarbonisation is currently one of our clients’ key concerns. Our role will be to promote the emergence of carbon-neutral commodity markets by ensuring the verification, transparency and implementation of best practices. This is fully in line with our DNA as a Group committed to supporting its clients as they take steps for responsible development.”
The CNC certification standard delivered by the CNC guarantees the credibility of an organisation’s environmental announcements by verification procedures, as expected of an independent certification body. CNC’s certification protocol was defined by a large panel of experts and shareholders and based on recognised standards and methodologies for GHG accounting and reporting, carbon reduction and compensation through high-quality carbon offsets, and verification by independent third parties.
