Questionnaire on the development of national registries

1. Questionnaire on thedevelopment of national registries Pre-sessional consultations on registries Bonn, 2-3 June 2002 Andrew Howard UNFCCC secretariat ahoward@unfccc.int

2. Topic: Parties’ development of national registries Sent to: Annex I Parties with Annex B commitments Returns: Received from 24 Annex I Parties The questionnaire • Most Parties beginning the development of national registries • Decisions are not yet taken on many questionnaire issues • Many Parties wish to cooperate with others in development work • Parties recognize that useful models exist in other applications • Consideration of necessary technical standards is just beginning

3. The questions • Stage of development • Dates for completing registry design and construction • Activities being undertaken or planned • Software options being considered • Areas requiring technical standards • Use of a single registry for Kyoto and domestic trading purposes • Models used in other fields • Responsibility for registry development and operation • Possible registry consolidation or cooperation with other Parties • Personnel and financial resource requirements • Government and other contacts on registry development

4. Activities and plans About half of Parties: “work has not yet begun“ About half of Parties: work is in “preliminary planning” One Party is in the design phase The UK has finished a domestic emissions trading registry Most Parties: Design by 2004 and construction by 2005 • Activities being undertaken or planned • Development of national strategies on mechanisms and registries • Consult with other Parties • Support development of technical standards • Appointment of a registry developer • Engagement of consultants • Establishment of legislative basis for the mechanisms and registries • Capacity building / obtaining resources

5. Registry design Examples of software options Legacy (Solaris, Cybase, ETL, Websphere 4, WEBI, LDAP, Apache) Active Server Pages, SQL Server 2000, HTML, XML, SOAP • Possible areas for technical standards • Number formats • Accounting rules and data storage • Communication protocols • Transaction procedures • Internal verification and security • Public accessibility • Legislative and legal issues Preference for one registry for both Kyoto and domestic/regional trading

6. Useful models for registries development • Central securities depositories • Renewable energy certificate trading systems • SO2 and NOx trading registries • Electricity trading • Trading in milk and manure allowances • GHG allowance trading simulations • Pollution point source registers • Company registers

7. Institutions and resources Most Parties: Development responsibility held by government Some Parties: Considering use of an outside development company Some Parties: Operational responsibility may rest outside government Resource requirements are unclear Range: from US$10,000 to US$1,000,000 • Many Parties wish to cooperate with other Parties or consolidate registries • Particularly among EU Parties (foreseeing EU trading by 2005) • Also CG11 Parties (among themselves and with the EU)

8. Future exchange of information / experience • How to provide for cooperation between Parties? • How to share relevant information? • Future questionnaires? • How to develop technical standards? • How to jointly implement technical standards?

9. Questionnaire on thedevelopment of national registries www.unfccc.int Andrew Howard UNFCCC secretariat ahoward@unfccc.int