Good morning from Glasgow: Daniele Pernigotti at the COP26 – The first step towards a global Carbon Footprint label

It is physically impossible to recount all the events that take place at the COP26. In each of the dozens of national pavilions are simultaneously held plenty of conferences, not to mention the meetings organized by associations officially recognized as UNFCCC observers and those hosted by the Secretariat itself.

Today, however, I would like to accompany your morning coffee with a small event, but extremely significant for us. It is the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will take place tonight, from 18:30 to 19:30 GMT, between four national Carbon Footprint programme operators: Carbon Footprint Italy (Italy), Toitū Envirocare (New Zealand), Programa País Carbono Neutralidad (Costa Rica) and The Climate Registry (the US and Canada), which is hosting the event. They all are programmes that, for years, have been working to ensure the credible quantification and communication of carbon footprints, both of products and organizations.

The four programmes are already part of the Carbon Footprint International network. Still, they have decided to sign a MoU to strengthen their collaboration. It is, in fact, the first formal step – required by the draft standard ISO 14029, whose publication is forthcoming – towards the signing of an MRA (Mutual Recognition Agreement). It is an elaborate and demanding path whose scope, however, is particularly significant.

The final goal for the national labels released by the programmes is the achievement of international recognition. The global scale of this acknowledgement will have clear important positive consequences for companies that have undertaken a serious and challenging process of quantification and reduction of carbon footprints, and this deserves global visibility.

The signing ceremony will be attended by Directors or CEOs of the programme operators and the Costa Rican Minister for the Environment. The event will be preceded by a short presentation of the four programmes and will be broadcast live at the following link.

Hereafters are the details of the conference:

6.30-7.00 PM – Presentation of Carbon Footprint Programmes

• The Climate Registry – Chelsea Hasenauer, Senior Manager of MRV Initiatives
• Carbon Footprint Italy – Daniele Pernigotti, Director
• Toitū Envirocare – Becky Lloyd, CEO
• Costa Rica’s Carbon Neutrality Program – Laura Mora, Program Coordinator

7.00-7.15 PM – Signing Ceremony of the MoU between Carbon Footprint Programmes

• The Climate Registry – Amy Holm, Executive Director
• Carbon Footprint Italy – Daniele Pernigotti, Director
• Toitū Envirocare – Becky Lloyd, CEO
• Costa Rica’s Carbon Neutrality Program – Andrea Meza Murillo, Minister of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica
  

It will follow a toast to celebrate the agreement signature.