The Nobel Sustainability Trust will inaugurate the World Sustainability Standards Organization in October 2023, in partnership with numerous governments and international organizations, NST Chairman Peter Nobel announced May 12. The announcement was made simultaneously in New York and Zürich, where the WSSO will be headquartered.
WSSO’s mission, Mr. Nobel said, is to unify standards in sustainable development fields such as energy, carbon credit, green finance, the environmental industry, energy conservation, carbon neutrality-related technologies, and ESG (environmental, social and governmental) investing.
In addition, WSSO will support the roll-out of the carbon market and other projects outlined in the Paris Agreement. It will seek to strengthen international coordination of carbon payment and settlement by integrating the central bank digital currencies of different countries. WSSO aims to promote global convergence of standards, help form a cross-regional common carbon market, and coordinate the use of CBDCs for carbon settlement and other mechanisms for global collaboration.
WSSO will establish research centers and various professional committees in Zurich, Beijing, and New York. In the future, it will open standard certification centers in multiple regions and countries around the world, supporting the synchronization of national and regional standards and reducing geographical, economic, and technical barriers to international cooperation in sustainable development.
The announcement said that the organization believes that “the goals, principles, policies, measures, and institutional arrangements of existing global climate treaties, such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, are based on scientific research and understanding of historical responsibilities” Noting that “these agreements were formed after long-term and arduous negotiations,'” it says that they “evince deep respect for history and advance the shared goal of sustainable development.”
Within this framework, the organization will encourage each country to “take constructive and transparent actions and cooperate in solidarity,” the announcement says. “WSSO’s purpose is to strengthen the principles and provisions of existing conventions and agreements. The existing institutional arrangements are beneficial to developing countries and provide channels for developed countries to help developing countries achieve carbon neutrality.”
WSSO’s priority is “to establish a global carbon market mechanism, the announcement says. “The carbon market mechanism was stipulated in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and should be implemented swiftly and conscientiously. The EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism tax is unilateral, so a global carbon market should be established in accordance with Article 6 to hedge this unilateral measure.”
As for how the carbon footprint of products should be measured in the spirit of the Paris Agreement, the announcement says: “WSSO believes that technical standards and models need to be researched and advanced by the various standard-setting organizations worldwide, and a consensus needs to be reached through thorough negotiation and then embodied in a generally accepted algorithm for carbon conversion.”
WSSO will appoint three representatives, one each from China, the United States, and the European Union, to manage the daily work of its executive committee, under the secretariat system of responsibility. The first head of the secretariat will be Bruno Wu, PhD, one of the first recipients of the Nobel sustainability award medal.
Mr. Wu is a shareholder in the parent company of Asia Times.