Formats
Overview#
The New Zealand Treasury is developing their Sovereign Green Bond Impact Report for the reporting periods of 2021/22, 2022/23, and 2023/24. Toitū Envirocare was engaged to perform an independent peer review of selected information, related to avoided emissions, which is contributing to this Green Bond Report.
Avoided emissions are reductions beyond the organisational value chain of the entity making the intervention claim(s)[1] and are measured relative to a counterfactual baseline.[2]
The peer review was conducted in reference to relevant best practice discourse[3], including the ICMA Green Bond Principles, WBCSD Avoided Emissions Guidelines[4], and ISO 14064-2[5]. These supported the review of accuracy, completeness, and transparency of the reported greenhouse gas (GHG) avoided emissions for a range of projects that the Treasury has provided finance for.
This review will support the New Zealand Treasury in providing credible environmental impact reporting to their stakeholders.
Notes
- [1] WBCSD, March 2023: Guidance on Avoided Emissions: Helping business drive innovations and scale solutions towards Net Zero
- [2] Counterfactual baseline refers to a “....reference scenario that represents the conditions most likely to occur in the absence of the action or intervention”. WBCSD Guidance on Avoided Emissions.
- [3] Refer to Appendix 2: Background information on common components for quantifying avoided emissions for more detail
- [4] WBCSD, March 2023: Guidance on Avoided Emissions: Helping business drive innovations and scale solutions towards Net Zero
- [5] ISO 14064-2 specifies principles and requirements and provides guidance at the project level for the quantification, monitoring and reporting of activities intended to cause greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions or removal enhancements. It includes requirements for planning a GHG project, identifying and selecting GHG sources, sinks and reservoirs (SSRs) relevant to the project and baseline scenario, monitoring, quantifying, documenting and reporting GHG project performance and managing data quality.