Proposed Text for Appendix C, Part Two of the Chairman's Note: Registries

Submission by Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, NewZealand, Norway, Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United States

31 January, 2000

  1. Each Party shall establish and maintain a national registry in the form of a computer database to ensure the accurate accounting of assigned amount, and track changes to the Party's assigned amount.*1

  2. Each Party shall identify an organization (government or private) to maintain the Party's national registry on behalf of the Party and to perform the necessary functions (the registry 'administrator').

  3. National Registries must contain the relevant publicly accessible minimum data elements, described in Annex Y of this appendix.

  4. The design of national registries shall be compatible so that transactions can occur instantaneously, and so that each unit of assigned amount is only held in one account and in one Party's national registry. The format of the computer database registry shall conform to the guidelines contained in Annex W*2 of this appendix and shall accommodate the holding of assigned amount units (AAUs), emission reduction units (ERUs), and certified emission reductions (CERs) within the national registry.

  5. Units of assigned amount shall be serialized at the time that a Party's assigned amount, pursuant to Articles 3.3, 3.4, and 3.7, is issued into its national registry in accordance with the guidelines detailed in Annex X*3 of this appendix. Each unit of such issued assigned amount will represent one metric tonne of CO2-equivalent and be known as an "AAU" (assigned amount unit). Serial numbers shall identify the commitment period for which the AAU is issued, identify which Party issued the AAU, and ensure that each AAU is unique. For activities under Article 6, an Annex I Party with a quantified emission reduction or limitation commitment inscribed in Annex B may transfer ERUs from its assigned amount.

  6. Upon direction of the host Party as to which units of assigned amount will be transferred as ERUs as a result of the project, the administrator of the host Party's national registry shall transfer ERUs by the following procedure:

    1. The registry administrator shall assign a Project Identifier, unique when combined with the country of origin.
    2. The registry administrator shall store the relevant project information, identified in Annex Y of this appendix, in the host Party's national registry.
    3. The registry administrator shall tag each of the units of assigned amount (to be transferred as ERUs) with the project identifier and transfer the resulting ERUs based on the distribution agreement between the project participants, provided by the host Party.
    4. The ERU transfer shall result in a change of holdings in the appropriate accounts (a debit (-) of units of assigned amount in one account(s), a credit (+) of ERUs in the other(s)).

  7. Where an Annex B Party elects to authorise domestic legal entities to hold ERUs in the Party's national registry, each such holder of ERUs shall be required to have a separate account within its national registry.

    *1. Parties should consider how to address registry issues related to Article 4.
    *2. To be elaborated at a future date.
    *3. To be elaborated at a future date.

Annex Y

PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE INFORMATION FROM A PARTY'S NATIONAL REGISTRY

I. MINIMUM DATA ELEMENTS IN A PARTY'S REGISTRY

Except where noted, the following data elements must be stored in a Party's national registry.

A. Account Information
At a minimum for each Party's registry, this would include an account containing the Party's serialized assigned amount and a retirement account for each commitment period to hold assigned amount retired from use to demonstrate compliance with the Party's Article 3.1 commitment. In addition, where an Annex B Party authorizes legal entities to hold assigned amount in their national registry, the assigned amount must be reflected in an account established within the national registry for each assigned amount holder*4.

  1. The name of each account in the registry.
    This corresponds to the following field of data in the relational database: Account Name.

  2. The number of each account.
    A unique number would be assigned to identify each account and in which national registry the account is held. The Account Number would use the 2 letter codes (ISO 3166) defined and maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for every country of the world. Account Numbers would begin with the country code of the registry in which the account is held and be followed by a number, unique when combined with the ISO code (e.g. Account Number US-1009). This corresponds to the following field of data in the relational database: Account Number.

  3. The type of each account.
    This would identify the type of account (e.g., retirement account). For retirement accounts, the compliance period, for which units held in the account are being used, would also be identified. This corresponds to the following fields of data in the relational database: Account Type, Compliance Period.

  4. The representative for each account.
    This would identify the individual person representing the government, or where applicable, the legal entity holder of the account. The first and last representative name would be identified. This corresponds to the following field of data in the relational database: Representative Name.

  5. An identification number for each account representative.
    A unique number would be assigned to identify each account representative and in which national registry the representative holds an account(s). This corresponds to the following field of data in the relational database: Representative Identification Number.

  6. Contact information for the account representative.
    This would include the mailing address, phone number, fax number and/or email address of the account representative. This corresponds to the following fields of data in the relational database: Representative Mailing Address, Phone, Fax and Email.

*4  Devolution to legal entities of the ability to hold, transfer, and/or acquire units would be at the discretion of each participating Party.However, responsibility for the Kyoto Protocol commitments would always remain with the Government as a Party to the Protocol.

B. Assigned Amount Information
This would include the entire assigned amount held in each account, represented as serialized units. Each serial number would be unique and identify the commitment period for which the unit was issued, the country of origin (e.g. 1-US-765034) and, where applicable, the project identifier. Serial numbers could be stored in a block, represented by start and end numbers (e.g. 1-NZ-000245-000978). For ease of data management in a database format, it would be useful to store these pieces making up the serialized unit in separate fields (i.e., associated commitment period, country of origin, starting serial number, ending serial number, and project identifier).

  1. The commitment period associated with each block of assigned amount.
    The commitment period code should be a number which identifies the commitment period for which the unit or block of serial numbers is issued (e.g., the first commitment period, 2008-2012, would be identified by '1'). This corresponds to the following field of data in the relational database: Associated Commitment Period.

  2. The country of origin.
    For units issued by an Annex B Party (pursuant to Articles 3.7, 3.3, and 3.4, including when subsequently transferred under Article 6), the country of origin would be the Annex B Party of issuance. The country of origin code shall be 2 letters in length and use the 2 letter codes (ISO 3166) defined and maintained by the ISO. This corresponds to the following field of data in the relational database: Country of Origin.

  3. The numerical starting serial number and ending serial number for the block of assigned amount. For a single unit, the starting and ending serial number will be the same. This corresponds to the following fields of data in the relational database: Starting Serial Number, Ending Serial Number.

  4. The code identifying the project for which ERUs are transferred.
    For each transfer of ERUs pursuant to Article 6, the host Party will create a numerical project identifier associated with the transferred units. Units transferred at a later date, but from the same project, will have a different project identifier. This project identifier code will be a unique number when combined with the country of origin. This corresponds to the following field of data in the relational database: Project Identifier.

C. Transaction Information
Transactions include the following activities: issuance of assigned amount pursuant to Articles 3.3, 3.4, and 3.7, and movement of assigned amount from one account to another within a registry or between registries (including transfer as a result of a JI project, and movement of units into the retirement account in order to demonstrate compliance with a Party's Article 3.1 commitment).

  1. A unique transaction number.
    Each transaction in a Party's registry would be assigned a unique transaction number. This corresponds to the following field of data in the relational database: Transaction Number.

  2. A code identifying the type of transaction.
    Each transaction would be assigned a transaction type. For example, a code of 'IA' would indicate issuance of initial assigned amount; a code of 'IS' would indicate issuance of assigned amount based on activities under Articles 3.3 and 3.4; a code of 'JI' would indicate initial transfer pursuant to Article 6; and a code of 'RT' would indicate a transfer into the retirement account. This corresponds to the following field of data in the relational database: Transaction Type.

  3. The date of the transaction.
    The date of each transaction would be stored. This corresponds to the following field of data in the relational database: Transaction Date.

  4. The accounts involved in the transaction.
    For each transaction, the transferor and transferee account numbers would be stored. This corresponds to the following fields of data in the relational database: Transferor Account Number, and Transferee Account Number.

  5. The status of the transaction.
    For each transaction a code shall be stored indicating whether the transaction is pending or whether the receiving registry/account has accepted or rejected the transfer. This corresponds to the following field of data in the relational database: Transaction Status.

D. JI Project Information
Registries must include the following information for any JI projects for which ERUs are transferred pursuant to Article 6.

  1. The name of the project.
    This corresponds to the following field of data in the relational database: Project Name.

  2. The location of the project.
    This corresponds to the following field of data in the relational database: Project Location.

  3. The year of transfer of ERUs from the project.
    This is the year that the host Party transferred assigned amount pursuant to Article 6. Note that each year of transfer of units from the project would receive a new project identifier. This corresponds to the following field of data in the relational database: Year of Transfer.

  4. An internet address where the project report can be downloaded.
    For each transfer of units pursuant to Article 6, the host Party shall store the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address where the project report can be downloaded. This corresponds to the following field of data in the relational database: Report Link.

II. PUBLIC ACCESSIBILITY

A Party's national registry should provide a publicly accessible user interface that allows interested persons to query and view non-confidential information contained within the registry. A registry containing the minimum elements outlined in this Annex should allow interested persons to retrieve a variety of reports, including, but not limited to, the following:

  1. A list of initial assigned amount issued as AAUs by an Annex B Party pursuant to Article 3.7.

  2. The current account balance and holdings of account holders within the national registry.

  3. The quantity of active (ie, non-retired) AAUs and ERUs within a national registry.

  4. A list of AAUs and CERs retired for compliance purposes for each commitment period.

  5. A list of any changes, and reasons for the changes, to a Party's holdings of AAUs and ERUs.