Greenhouse Gas Validation and Verification

No. A verification body cannot verify information it has helped to prepare. Your inventory may be prepared by your own team or by any consultant, and GQCL then provides the independent verification.

Reasonable assurance is a high, but not absolute, level of assurance based on extensive evidence gathering, and is expressed as a positive opinion. Limited assurance involves less extensive procedures and is expressed as a conclusion that nothing has come to the verifier's attention to indicate a material misstatement. The applicable programme or the intended user normally specifies the level required.

Duration depends on the organisational boundary, the number of sites and emission sources, the level of assurance and the quality of the data. Your proposal sets out the planned verification days and the timeline from submission of data to issue of the statement.

GHG statements are verified to ISO 14064-3 against the criteria you report under, such as ISO 14064-1, ISO 14064-2 or the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, together with any programme-specific rules.

Acceptance depends on the programme. For voluntary disclosure and for lender, investor and supply chain requirements, verification by an EGAC-accredited body to ISO 14065 is recognised internationally. Regulated UAE schemes apply their own approval or registration rules for verifiers, and we confirm the position for your scheme before the engagement begins.

Materiality is the threshold above which errors, omissions or misrepresentations could affect the decisions of intended users. It is agreed at the start of the engagement, often as a percentage of total reported emissions, and determines the extent of testing.