Role of standards and conformity assessment for saving global climate

The main outcome of the recent G20 meeting in Rome, Italy, was the Rome Declaration of the G20 Leaders. Paragraph 46 of this declaration emphasizes the importance of consensus-based international standards for economic development going forward.

In this connection it was also arranged a Summit conference denoted International Standards for People, Planet & Prosperity, organized jointly by the international standardization organizations IEC, ISO, ITU together with G20. This culminated in a Call to Action concerning digital technologies for ensuring a sustainable, equitable and prosperous future and pointing out that international standards offer powerful solutions for this purpose, helping policymakers to enact policy goals in support of climate action at speed and scale.

Case studies have shown how international standards positively impact climate mitigation policy objectives. This was shared with the UNFCCC and duly accounted for at their COP26 conference in Glasgow, during the first two weeks of November. The key message conveyed was that international standards and conformity assessment work is needed for “supporting global efforts to build a more peaceful, sustainable, and fairer future”.

In Glasgow, however, it came to light that industry, rather than governments and regulators, will take the lead in finding solutions to the climate crisis as it surely will become more and more a competitive business issue.

For this, international standards will be instrumental for the progress and conformity assessment needed for verifying the claims of environmental benefits.

It is realized therefore that international standard bodies like IEC should raise the ambitions from having a supporting role to become forefront builders of a sustainable world.

The IEC Climate action website includes a set of individual country case studies, as well as a downloadable version of the entire Climate action kit.