About National Carbon Registry
The GHG emission reduction targets listed above are all conditional upon international support (financial and technical support) made available. Further, Vanuatu uses opportunities for climate resilient socio-economic development with international cooperation and support including carbon market under Article 6.
The Paris Climate Change Agreement (PA), specifically Article 6 of PA provides an opening for Parties to voluntarily cooperate in the implementation of their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) through the transfer of mitigation outcomes (MOS) i.e. Internationally Transferable Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs). The ITMOs will be essentially generated from climate change mitigation actions/projects implemented by the party and within or outside of the NDC; further, the NDCs shall make a corresponding adjustment to prevent double counting, questions remain about how to treat ITMOs generated outside an NDC, which do not contribute to double counting. To encourage countries to reduce emissions from outside their NDCs while both safeguarding and raising climate ambition, the National Carbon Registry may play a key role. The design and implementation of a robust and ‘future-proof’ National Carbon Registry will have multiple potential benefits and mitigate risks of double counting and environmental integrity.
The primary objective of the National Carbon Registry System is to scale-up and shape the future of cost-effective domestic GHG mitigation actions; however, this will be an effective tool for tracking the ITMOs. This will also help in achieving the national climate change mitigation objectives of the host party. Paris Agreement (PA) also opens up opportunities for the National Carbon Registry System with domestic and international emission trading provisions and participating in the envisaged complex network of international and domestic market-based mechanisms post-2020. The National Carbon Registry System also channel to design and pilot new domestic market-based instruments.
The National Carbon Registry System involve large legal and financial interests. Trust in the accuracy and integrity of the reported data is, therefore, a prerequisite for a well-functioning registry system. To ensure accuracy and integrity of data robust monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system are essential. Verification is essential to enhance trust in a carbon registry system and ITMOs. Where systems have large financial implications, participation is a voluntary or international exchange of ITMOs is planned, this trust is paramount for successful implementation.
The National Carbon Registry System requires a comprehensive assessment of legal, regulatory, financial and institutional arrangements and shall complement the socio-economic and development goals of the host country. The inception stage requires to carry out system assessment and design of a national carbon registry system through the development of its functional and technical specifications in the context of supporting and facilitating a set of existing policies and instruments for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation and GHG reductions in the host country.
The objective is also to link domestic mitigation systems or mechanisms and the National Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) to provide a supporting framework for the design, piloting, and scaling-up of market-based mechanisms. The outcome of the work will ultimately help the host country to develop and launch a system and software to record national GHG emission and emission reduction from mitigation action data (ITMOs) and potentially allow inter-linking among various (international) market-based mechanisms while avoiding double counting and enhancing environmental integrity.
The National Carbon Registry System on implementation manages the national GHG inventory and GHG emission reductions (ITMOs) achieving from the various mitigation actions implemented and operational (bottom-up data from the national MRV system) and hence strengthen MRV and transparency. This will also facilitate consistency in available data for accurate reporting for greater transparency. Thereby national carbon registry will provide bottom-up data from the national MRV and verification systems. Thus, the National Carbon Registry System shall record GHG emission data and implements a market-based instrument by supporting issuance, transfer, and cancellation of credits.
The National Carbon Registry System is to be designed to serve dual purposes of data management and transaction registry. Thus, the national carbon registry will have two components:
1. Data Management System: which implies that it will collect, control, process, and analyze bottom-up data from national MRV (GHG inventory and mitigation actions) and regulatory sources. This would mean that the national carbon registry will control and consolidate the major chunk of GHG emissions data from all the sectors under national MRV. Therefore, this can be linked with a National Monitoring Reporting and Verification System (MRV) and enhance the transparency of the emissions data being reported under the domestic and international reporting requirements under PA.
2. Registry for Transactions, Transfer, and Cancellations: which implies that the national carbon registry will host and link infrastructure of the market-based instruments (existing or upcoming for both domestic and international) by providing relevant details on registries and thus making inter-linking possible.
Project Implementation Process
Governance Structure
The Government of Vanuatu has a well-defined and established governance structure for climate change actions as per the ‘Meteorology, Geological Hazards and Climate Change Act No. 25 of 2016 (Climate Change Act)’, Vanuatu’s Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction Policy (CCDRR) 2016-2030 and National Sustainable Development Plan (NSDP):2016-2030. The framework of institution structure as follows:
Figure 1: Climate Change-Organizational and Institutional Structure in Vanuatu
Stakeholders – Roles & Responsibility
| Stakeholders | Roles & Responsibilities |
|---|---|
| The Article 6 Secretariate (DoCC) |
• New user registration/user approval (Project/Bilateral and VVB) • Screening of ITMO PIN • Unique ITMO Project Identification Number Generation and Enlisting • Issue the letter of authorization for the ITMO project • Update LOA status on ITMO Registry • Appointment of VVB (in special cases) • Registration Review of ITMO Project • Presentation to NAB for ITMO registration (if required) • Registration of ITMO Project and updated on ITMO Registry • Approve/reject ITMO project design change or monitoring plan change • Performance Review verification report, ITMO-MR • Present the ITMOs issuance request summary to the NAB and seek approval (if required). • ITMO certification and issuance of ITMO certificate • Signing and execution of ITMO purchase agreement • Deduction of Share of Proceed (i.e. 5% ITMOs issued) • Deduction of Adaptation Fund (2% of revenue from sales of ITMOs) • ITMO sales/transaction and settlement with bilateral buyer • ITMOs Revenue settlement with the Project Proponent |
| National Advisory Board (NAB) |
• Approval of list of eligible VVBs • Approval of eligible methodologies • Approval of baseline and monitoring methodology, standardized baseline, emission factors • ITMO Project registration approval (if required). • Guidance on Article 6 rules and requirements for Vanuatu • ITMOs issuance approval (if required). • Approval on ITMO sales/transaction and settlement with bilateral buyer • Guidance on deduction of Share of Proceed (i.e. 5% ITMOs issued) and adaptation fund (2% of revenue from sales of ITMOs) |
| Bilateral Partner | • Screening of ITMO PIN |
| (Govt of Switzerland/BAFU) |
• Issue the LOA for the ITMO project • Registration review of ITMO Project (if required) • Approve/reject ITMO project design change or monitoring plan change • Annual review of Monitoring data (if required) • Performance Review verification report, ITMO-MR • Signing and execution of ITMO purchase agreement • ITMO sales/transaction and settlement with seller |
| Project Proponent |
• Registration with ITMOs Registry Portal • Registration /User fee payment • Preparation and submission of ITMO project idea note • Preparation and Submission of ITMO Design Document (ITMO DD) • Appointment of VVB and communicate to the Secretariate • Submission of Documents required by VVB for validation • Presentation to the Secretariate for Registration (if required) • Implementation of ITMO project (as per the ITMO-DD) • Monitoring of ITMO project (as per the ITMO-DD) • Communicate any ITMO project design change to the Secretariate • Annual submission of Monitoring data into the iMRV Tool and bilateral buyer (if required) • Preparation of ITMO Monitoring Report (ITMO MR) • Appointment of VVB and communicate to the Secretariate • Submission of Documents required by VVB for verification • Signing and execution of ITMO purchase agreement |
| Validation and Verification Body (VVB) |
• Validation of ITMO project including desk review, site visit, stakeholder interview • Submission of Validation Report and Final ITMO-DD and Documents • Verification of ITMOs generated during monitoring period including desk review, site visit, stakeholder interview • Submission of Verification Report and Final ITMO-MR and Documents |
| Multilateral Development Partners (UNDP) | • Facilitate signing and execution of ITMO purchase agreement • Facilitate ITMO sales/transaction and settlement with bilateral buyer |