CarbonNeutral Company unveils carbon accounting policy

Offset firm claims policy for standardising carbon accounting will complement new standard for managing offset projects

Carbon offsetting specialist The CarbonNeutral Company this week released a new Policy for Carbon Accounting and Reporting (PARC) that aims to establish best practices for the measurement and reporting of carbon contracts.

The company said that the new policy would complement the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS), which was released this week and aims to certify the quality of offset projects, by providing similar guidelines for governing the end-to-end process "from carbon sourcing and contracting through to the ultimate receipt and delivery of carbon [offset credits]".

The PARC, which has been developed in conjunction with auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers and is already used by the CarbonNeutral Company, is based on established financial reporting standards and aims to ensure that reports on carbon trading are understandable, relevant and allow fair comparisons with previous reporting periods.

Jonathan Shopley, executive director at The CarbonNeutral Company, insisted that standards were required for carbon accounting as well as managing offset projects and urged other offset firms to use the new policy.

“This complements the top-level quality assurance on emissions reductions projects that will be provided by the VCS," Shopley said. "We believe that the onus is now on the carbon offsetting industry to work to a common standard, showing exactly how our figures add up and communicating these clearly."