Validation is an exercise carried out by an UNFCCC registered Quality Assurance Company.
On receipt of the PDD for validation, the Validators will post it and accompanying documents on their website and inform the UNFCCC Secretariat of the address where the documents may be viewed. Ten days later, the Secretariat will advertise the address on the UNFCCC website. The documents will be displayed for 45 days from the date that the UNFCCC Secretariat announces its availability. The Validators will review any comments as they arise and where necessary, revert to the Client for further information/action. For this reason, project developers should ensure that the PDD is as close to the final version as possible and meets all the requirements detailed in the PDD template and approved methodology.
Whilst the PDD is undergoing international stakeholder consultation, the validation will proceed:
Preparation
This stage will involve assembly of the project documentation, checklists, guidance material and communication with all team members.
Document Review
All active team members will review the Project Design Documentation and the Monitoring Plan. This will include an assessment of the applicability of the approved methodology to the project. Inadequacies in the documentation (if any) will be highlighted at this stage if possible.
Preparation of Local Checklist/Site visit
The Validators will undertake the preparation of the local checklist and make any necessary amendments to the main checklist. The assessor will validate assumptions in the PDD, the local stakeholder consultation process and liaise with environmental regulators to confirm that there are no existing restrictions on GHG emissions.
Validation Assessment
Using the feedback from the Assessment Team, the findings of the local assessment and the results of the document review, the Validators will undertake the final assessment of the Project Design Documentation against the main checklist. Where necessary, the Validators will raise Observations, minor Corrective Action Requests (CARs) and major CARs. The findings of the Validation Assessment will be discussed with the rest of the Team Members.
The Validation Assessment will specifically address:
- Baseline and leakage: This will include the application of AR-AM0001/ Version 1. The team will test the data presented in order to verify the baseline emissions and to confirm that the project activity is not the baseline. The case for leakage, or absence of leakage, will be carefully reviewed.
- Monitoring Plan: The monitoring plan must show how the data on project activities are to be collected and handled in order to calculate the project emission reductions and to comply with the approved monitoring methodology. The parameters used to predict the emission reductions will be cross checked against the monitoring plan to ensure that those parameters which have a very strong bearing on the reported results will be collected with the highest accuracy. The assessment team will be particularly interested to see how data will be collected and how quality of data will be assured. Please note that sufficient detail will be required to enable this assessment to take place. This implies that monitoring and measurement procedures and forms are prepared. The monitoring plan must also cover environmental and social impacts as required by the EIA and other regulatory authorities.
- Contribution to host country sustainable development will be assessed through a review of the local stakeholder consultation process, host country acceptance and an assessment of the proposed social and environmental programmes in comparison to the "normal" level of performance.
- Review of projected emission reductions: This involves the calculation of the baseline and with-project emissions. These will be checked using a spreadsheet to recalculate projected emission reductions using the parameters defined within the project and the approved methodology. These parameters will then be checked to ensure that they are appropriate and conservation.
Draft Validation Reported preparation & Comment
The Validators will prepare a Draft Validation Report for the project and forward this for comments and actions if necessary.
Final Validation Report & Recommendations
Once any outstanding issues have been addressed within the agreed timeframes, the Validators will be able to complete the final version of the Validation Report and submit it for final technical review.
Technical Review & Validation Opinion
The Technical Reviewer's job is to study the Validators' recommendation and ensure that it is justified in the report and documentation provided. The Technical Reviewer also checks that the Validators has followed all of the necessary procedures in the appropriate manner. The Technical Reviewer either accepts or rejects the Validators' recommendation.
Registration with CDM EB
When the Technical Reviewer accepts a positive recommendation, the Validation Company will print a Validation Certificate and submit this to the CDM Executive Board, accompanied by the final version of the PDD, the letter of acceptance and a report summarizing how international stakeholder comments have been addressed. These documents constitute the "Validation Report" required under Decision 17 paragraph 40 (f). At the same time, the Validation Company will make the necessary information publicly available to interested parties via their CDM web page.
- courtesy SGS, New Delhi/UK