ANSI Signs MOU with Chicago Climate Exchange

As part of a continuing effort to enhance its accreditation program for greenhouse gas (GHG) verification bodies, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX).

CCX is the world's first and North America's only legally binding rules-based GHG emissions allowance trading system, as well as the world's only global system for emissions trading based on all six greenhouse gases.

ANSI is coordinator of the U.S. standards and conformity assessment system and administrator of a pilot accreditation program for third-party bodies working to validate and verify GHG emission assertions for a broad spectrum of industries.

Through the memorandum, the two pledge to cooperate in the creation of an accreditation program for GHG verification bodies concerning CCX emissions offset and commercial forestry projects.

The CCX/ANSI program will assess the competence of GHG verification bodies against multiple requirements, including those developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in its standard Greenhouse gases – Requirements for greenhouse gas validation and verification bodies for use in accreditation or other forms of recognition (ISO 14065:2007), and CCX protocols as stipulated under Chapter 8 and Chapter 9 of the CCX Rulebook. The International Accreditation Forum (IAF) document for the application of ISO 14065 will also be referenced as an assessment tool.