CDP Climate Change 2022 Reporting Guidance

(C10.1a) Provide further details of the verification/assurance undertaken for your Scope 1 emissions and attach the relevant statements.

Question dependencies

This question only appears if you select “Third-party verification or assurance process in place” for Scope 1 emissions in response to C10.1.

Change from last year

Minor Change

Rationale

CDP supports verification and assurance as good practice in environmental reporting. This question gives data users further confidence in the accuracy of the data reported.

Connection to other frameworks

RE100

Response options

Please complete the following table. You are able to add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Relevant standard drop-down options:

• AA1000AS
• ABNT NBR ISO 14064-3:2007 (Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas)
• Advanced technologies promotion Subsidy Scheme with Emission reduction Target (ASSET)
• Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) des Airports Council International Europe
• Alberta Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER)
• ASAE3000
• Attestation standards established by AICPA (AT105)
• Australian National GHG emission regulation (NGER)
• California Mandatory GHG Reporting Regulations (CARB)
• Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) Handbook: Assurance Section 5025
• Carbon Trust Standard
• Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) verification standard
• The Climate Registry's General Verification Protocol (also known as California Climate Action Registry (CCAR))
• Compagnie Nationale des Commissaires aux Comptes (CNCC)
• Corporate GHG verification guidelines from ERT
• DNV VeriSustain Protocol/ Verification Protocol for Sustainability Reporting
• Earthcheck Certification
• ERM GHG Performance Data Assurance Methodology
• European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS)
• IDW PS 821: IDW Prüfungsstandard: Grundsätze ordnungsmäßiger Prüfung oder prüferischer Durchsicht von Berichtenim Bereich der Nachhaltigkeit
• IDW AsS 821: IDW Assurance Standard: Generally Accepted Assurance Principles for the Audit or Review of Reports on Sustainability Issues
• ISAE3000
• ISAE 3410
• ISO14064-1
• ISO14064-3
• Japan voluntary emissions trading scheme (JVETS) guideline for verification
• Korean GHG and energy target management system
• NMX-SAA-14064-3-IMNC: Instituto Mexicano de Normalización y Certificación A.C
• RevR6 procedure for assurance of sustainability report
• Saitama Prefecture Target-Setting Emissions Trading Program
• SGS Sustainability Report Assurance
• Spanish Institute of Registered Auditors (ICJCE)
• SSAE 3000
• Standard 3810N Assurance engagements relating to sustainability reports of the Royal Netherlands Institute of Registered Accountants
• State of Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection, Verification of GHG and emissions reduction in Israel Guidance Document
• Swiss Climate CO₂ Label for Businesses
• Thai Greenhouse Gas Management Organisation (TGO) Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Verification Protocol
• Toitū Envirocare’s carbonreduce certification standard
• Tokyo Emissions Trading Scheme
• Other, please specify

Requested content

General

• If you are reporting third party verification or assurance underway, your entries into the table should reflect the emissions that are being subject to verification/assurance for the current reporting year, with the exception of the attached statement, which will relate to a previous year.
• CDP understands that you may seek verification for reasons other than reporting to CDP and that confidential information may be included within your detailed verification statement. In this case, it is sufficient for your verifier/assurer to attest to the Scope and level of assurance/verification through correspondence such as an abbreviated statement as long as this covers the data points outlined below (see guidance for column 4 ‘Attach your statement here’).

Verification or assurance cycle in place (column 1)

• A biennial verification/assurance process is where emissions are verified once every two years and a triennial verification/assurance process is where emissions are verified once every three years.
• You may refer to the additional information provided on annual, biennial and triennial processes in C10.1 for further information.

Status in the current reporting year (column 2)

• Please select the option that is most appropriate to your company.

Type of verification or assurance (column 3)

• This column relates to the type of verification or assurance that has been awarded.
• The option that is relevant will depend on the verification standard to which the verification process has been completed and the level of assurance agreed between the verifier and the company.
• Companies can select from the following options:

- Not applicable - In very few cases, usually in program based compliance, the verification standard does not include a level of assurance; in this case select this option.
- Limited assurance - This is one of the most common levels of assurance and, for e.g., is appropriate to verification undertaken in accordance with ISO14064-3, ISAE3000, ASAE3000 and The Climate Registry.
- Moderate assurance - For example, this level of assurance is appropriate to verification undertaken in accordance with AA1000 and AT105.
- Reasonable assurance - For example, this is appropriate to verification undertaken under ISO14064-3, ISAE3000, ASAE3000 and The Climate Registry; all verification undertaken for EU ETS compliance is to a level of “reasonable assurance” (according to the requirements of EA-6/03).
- High assurance - For example, this is appropriate to verification undertaken in accordance with AA1000 and AT105.
- Third party verification/assurance underway - Select this option if verification/assurance is underway and you do not yet know the level of assurance that you are intending to achieve.

Attach the statement (column 4)

• Note the requirements for the statement detailed below and the option to use the CDP template.
• All companies should attach a verification statement here unless they have selected “No verification or assurance of current reporting year” or “Underway but not complete for current reporting year – first year it has taken place” in column 2 ‘Status in the current reporting year’. The statement should:

- Clearly state that GHG emissions have been verified or assured as part of the process. If the statement refers to other documents that have been verified (such as Sustainability Report, Financial Report, GRI etc.) where items verified are specified, please attach those to the question as well;
- Relate to the relevant Scope;
- Clearly state the opinion and type of verification/assurance that has been given and the verification standard used. Assurers/verifiers must define the finding in their opinion, simply stating “limited assurance” is not sufficient to fulfill this criterion. These should match the selections made in columns 1 and 3; and
- Covers the current reporting year, or covers the 12-months prior for annual processes, 12-24 months prior for biennial processes, or 12-36 months prior for triennial processes if “Underway but not complete for reporting year – previous statement of process attached” is selected in “Status in the current reporting year” column.

Page/section reference (column 5)

• Please identify the page and the section that contains details of your verification/assurance of Scope 1 emissions.

Relevant standard (column 6)

• This column captures the verification standard against which the verification process has been undertaken.
• It does not refer to the reporting or calculation standard. CDP has produced criteria for what constitutes an acceptable verification standard. All accepted verification standards, and exceptions to their use, are listed here. If you are using a verification standard that is not listed in the “accepted standards” nor the “non-verification standards,” please contact your regional CDP office in order to have your verification standard reviewed. If you do not have your standard reviewed by contacting us and your response is submitted before the official CDP deadline, CDP will then review the standard used and add it to the website under “accepted” or “not accepted” depending on the outcome of the standard review. If the response is submitted after the official deadline, CDP cannot commit to review the standard used in time for scoring.
• Select from the accepted standards listed or use “Other, please specify” if the standard you are using is not included.
• If you select “Other, please specify”, provide a label for the Relevant standard.
• The verification standard should be stated on the verification statement.

Proportion of reported emissions verified (%) (column 7)

• It may be the case that only a sub-section of your emissions has been verified/assured due to, for e.g., regulatory requirements.
• Please identify what proportion of your total reported emissions for Scope 1 has been subject to the verification/assurance process described.

Additional information

• Verification processes: If you have attained verification covering all your reported Scope 1 emissions (for example GHG emissions reported in your sustainability report) and also other verification covering smaller proportion of your business (for example only Californian operations or facilities under EU ETS regulation), you only should report the verification in place covering all reported Scope 1 emissions. If you have multiple verification practices covering different business divisions (for example Californian operations and facilities under EU ETS), you should report all of them by adding rows to the table, completing all columns, and attaching the appropriate documents for each verification practice.
• Note that this question refers to the proportion of your total reported gross global Scope 1 emissions over which you have sought verification, not the sampling regime that the verifier employed. For example, if you have only sought verification over your US operations then you should report the percentage of your total reported gross global Scope 1 emissions that these US facilities represent. Alternatively, if you have sought organization-wide verification, then you should enter 100%. If you have reported your full GHG inventory in your corporate communications material which has been verified, please enter 100%. If you are reporting third party verification or assurance underway, your answer should reflect the proportion of emissions that are being subject to verification/assurance for the current reporting year.