International Standards are Vital to Driving Climate Action, Performance and Transition

IEMA uses new presence at COP24 to urge leaders to “understand the power of standards”

IEMA has called on governments and business leaders attending the COP24 climate talks to utilise the full potential of international standards as tools for tackling climate action. It says that international climate standards, when allied with sustainability skills and strategic commitments, offer a “powerful driver for progressive climate action”.

IEMA says that international standards such as the environmental management standard ISO 14001 provide businesses across the world with frameworks to take on climate challenges, and contribute to national and international carbon reduction targets.

Speaking from our side event on the last day of the 24^th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Katowice in Poland, IEMA’s Chief Policy Advisor Martin Baxter said that standards are essential to mainstreaming climate change action:

“IEMA time. Internationally relevant and recognised frameworks have the power to support, guide and monitor climate performance, especially when combined with sustainability skills across businesses and society,”

“International standards for environmental management, carbon footprinting, climate change adaptation and vulnerability assessment will prove ever more valuable. That is why we are using our presence at COP24 to encourage political and business leaders to understand the power of standards as strategic and practical tools to tackle climate change at organisational level”, he continued.

Following its successful application to UNFCCC to become a registered NGO, IEMA is this morning co-hosting a COP24 side event with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). The session is focusing on the role of international standards like ISO 14001 (environmental management) and ISO 14064-1 (quantifying greenhouse gas emissions). The event will also introduce new standards in development for adaptation to climate change (ISO 14090); for impacts, vulnerability and risk assessment (ISO 14091) and green bonds for environmental performance of projects and assets (ISO 14030). Organised by the ISO Climate Change Coordination Task Force, the event will feature talks and discussions about the use of International Standards for driving action, performance and transition on climate change.

Nick Blyth, IEMA’s Climate Change Policy Lead and Vice Chair of the ISO Climate Change Task Force said this morning that skills and capacity building will both prove crucial in driving change and a just transition:

“Many of the solutions to tacking climate change have already been developed, but we need rapid deployment - at scale - to stand any chance of stabilising to 1.5 degrees of warming. Skills development and capacity building programmes are essential to mainstream emissions reduction and catalyse change”.