Reducing Carbon Emissions Only Leads to Foreign Certification Delays... Now It's Time to Seek Consultation

Gathering Stakeholder Opinions
Establishing Carbon Reduction Certification Standards
Also Setting Up the 'Carbon Reduction Certification Center'

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[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seoyoon] The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) announced on the 12th that it has established a specialized organization called the ‘Carbon Reduction Certification Center’ (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Center’) to support companies' carbon neutrality efforts by evaluating voluntary carbon reduction activities and certifying reduction achievements.

Carbon reduction evaluations through foreign certification bodies involve complex procedures and take an average of about 1 year and 6 months to obtain certification. To enhance corporate convenience, the KCCI Certification Center has developed the ‘KCCI Carbon Reduction Certification Standard’ (hereinafter referred to as the Certification Standard), which evaluates methods and reduction achievements of carbon reduction through companies' products, technologies, and services. It was created by benchmarking systems such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Verra, and Gold Standard, which are recognized as global standards for voluntary carbon reduction certification. Currently, stakeholder consultation procedures are underway.

The Center plans to operate under an independent governance system to strengthen certification reliability and objectivity. To this end, it will establish an Operating Committee and a Certification Committee. Third-party pre-verification by verification bodies registered as verifiers in domestic and international reduction systems or those with credibility meeting international standards is also mandatory. A voluntary carbon reduction consultative body, including major high-emission industries and companies, will be formed to discover reduction projects and methodologies.

The certification process proceeds in the following order: preparation of methodology and business plan, third-party verification, review and registration by the Certification Committee, preparation of monitoring reports, third-party verification, review by the Certification Committee, and issuance of certificates. The credits issued through this process are expected to be utilized in various ways such as achieving the company’s carbon neutrality goals, promoting carbon-neutral related products, and sustainability management reports.

A KCCI official stated, "We plan to cooperate with the government in the future to promote companies' voluntary carbon reduction activities."

Since the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement, many global companies have declared carbon neutrality, highlighting the importance of voluntary carbon reduction. In fact, the volume of credits issued as a result of global voluntary carbon reduction grew from 166 million tons in 2018 to 366 million tons in 2021, growing at an average annual rate of 30%. Voluntary carbon reduction certification is mainly active among overseas non-profit organizations, with representative private certification bodies including the United States’ Verra and Switzerland’s Gold Standard.

Professor Oh Hyungna of Kyung Hee University said, "The emergence of a certification platform that can promote companies’ voluntary efforts for carbon neutrality domestically is a meaningful development," adding, "I hope the Certification Center will grow into a platform where certified credits can be traded in the private-led voluntary carbon market in the future."

Companies typically reduce carbon emissions generated internally at business sites as much as possible through process efficiency improvements and eco-friendly fuel transitions, and reduce all indirect emissions through RE100 implementation, but it is difficult to achieve 100% carbon neutrality. It becomes even more challenging when considering emissions across the entire supply chain. Therefore, there is a need to develop methodologies that can objectively and reliably evaluate carbon reduction activities through companies’ products and services and certify the resulting achievements.

Woo Taehee, Executive Vice President of KCCI, said, "Since domestic voluntary carbon reduction certification is in its infancy, we plan to devote special efforts to operating the Certification Center to gain trust from external evaluation bodies and investors," adding, "To contribute to the transition to an eco-friendly society, we will enhance external credibility and competitiveness by building cooperative networks with global advanced institutions and grow the platform to lead the global voluntary carbon market ecosystem."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.