International Activities

The ETV Programme exists in different countries across the world. Although with some differences, all programmes are used as tools to provide third-party verification to environmental technologies.

The ETV International Working Group (IWG-ETV)

 The European Commission participates in an International Working Group on ETV (IWG-ETV), together with the Canadian, Korean, Philippines and US programmes. The objectives of the group are the following:

• Mutual recognition of ETV programs
• Joint verification procedures and joint verified technologies on common environmental challenges or issues of international interest
• Possibility of an International Standards Organisation (ISO) standard for environmental technology verification and reporting.  Include a process for accreditation and certification of verification organisations
• Engage stakeholders and facilitate international cooperation in support of transparent, environmental technology verification and reporting
• International meetings, workshops and forums to share knowledge and build common practices

The ISO-ETV working group

 On 8 February 2013, the International Standardization Organization (ISO) accepted to draft a new standard on Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) and Performance Evaluation. The proposal resulted from the IWG work since 2008 and was made by the Standards Council of Canada, on behalf of the IWG-ETV.  The objective is to provide the basis for mutual recognition of ETV programs in future. The new standard will be drafted by the ISO Technical Committee 207 (Environmental Management). The scope of the new standard would include:

• General specifications for conducting a verification
• Definition of verification parameters, plan of tests and assessment of test data
• Specifications of ETV reports and statements of verification

ETV Programmes across the world