BP Amoco plc sanctioned an independent audit of its greenhouse gas emissions as part of a bid to reduce emissions to 10% below 1990 levels by 2010.
The company commissioned a team from London-based firms KPMG and Det Norske Veritas and from ICF Consultants Inc., Washington, D.C., to check its accounting and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
The audit team has begun reviewing BP Amoco`s greenhouse gas data for 1998 and aims by yearend to have the mechanisms in place for the industry`s first greenhouse gas emissions audit process, in line with international financial and environmental auditing standards.
Precedent
A KPMG official told OGJ that BP Amoco intends this audit process to become a template on which the industry as a whole can base its greenhouse gas monitoring programs: "The process will be completely open so that other companies can lift these ideas."
A key part of the auditing mechanism will be the monitoring of an internal pilot system for trading of greenhouse gas emissions permits, which BP Amoco started in September 1998 and aims to have introduced worldwide during 2000.
Under this program, the business units of BP Amoco worldwide that are able to reduce emissions at a relatively low cost can sell excess emissions "credits" to units with high emissions reductions costs, as they all strive to meet the corporate reduction target.
Bernie Bulkin, vice-president, environment, of BP Amoco`s downstream business, said: "BP Amoco has recognized for some years the importance of having accurate and transparent data relating to all of our emissions.
"Given our public commitment on greenhouse gas targets, we see a need for having an independent, robust, and comprehensive audit of our reported emissions of greenhouse gases. This project forms an important part of BP Amoco`s overall climate-change program."
To take account of outside views of BP Amoco`s performance, the project will be overseen by a panel of representatives of government, academia, and non-governmental organizations.
The KPMG official said that 12 potential panelists have been approached, but that their names could not be announced until their organizations had given formal approval of their participation.
David Coles, sustainability advisory services partner at KPMG, said: "This is a pioneering approach to emissions management which presents us with a completely new professional challenge.
"The application of internationally accepted audit methodologies will ensure that BP Amoco`s reduction targets and internal greenhouse gas trades are strictly monitored, transparent to all stakeholder groups, and satisfy the needs of the financial markets when trading starts externally. The independent expert panel will add another level of scrutiny to the process."
