Registries at 578 workshop, Oct 2001

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Possible elements of the technical standards
Pre-sessional consultations on registries Bonn,
2-3 June 2002
Andrew Howard UNFCCC secretariat ahoward_at_unfccc.in
t
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Scope of presentation

• Considerations in developing technical standards
• Possible elements of the technical standards
• Process for developing standards

Possible technical standards based on document
FCCC/TP/2002/3
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Considerations in developing technical standards

• For data exchange only or also for the
  registries themselves?
• Differences in domestic policies?
• Open or closed performance standards?
• Compulsory and/or optional standards?
• Evolution / review of standards?

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Possible elements of technical standards?
Number formats Message exchange Message
content Communications protocols Security Internal
verification procedures User interfaces Data
storage Registry administrators Institutional /
legal frameworks
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Possible number formats
Serial numbers? commitment period, Party, unit
type, sink activity, project, unique
number Account numbers? Party, unique
number Transaction numbers? commitment period,
Party, unique number
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Message exchange between registries

• Messages communicate between registries and the
  transaction log
• Provide for information sharing and for
  transactions to occur
• Provide for the automated checks of the
  transaction log
• Message sequence defines the transaction procedure

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Possible message exchange International transfer
Account in national registry of Party A
Account in national registry of Party B
Transaction log (automated checks)
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Possible message exchange Domestic issuance
Account in national registry of Party A
Transaction log (automated checks)
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Possible message content

• Messages 1 to 7
• Transaction number (generated by initiating
  registry)

• Messages 1 and 3
• Transaction number
• Transaction record (type, serial numbers, account
  numbers)

• Transaction status
• Message 2 accepted / declined
• Message 4 approved / rejected
• Message 5 continue / cancel
• Message 6 completed / terminated
• Message 7 completed / terminated

Other information (e.g. reason for rejection by
the transaction log)
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Possible communications protocols

• Messages need to conform to standardized formats
• To be accurately and automatically read by
  receiving registry
• Use of different formats is possible but
  requires translation

• For example
• XML (eXtensible Markup Language) provides for the
  sender to tag text with a description of the
  information contained in the text
• SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial
  Telecommunication) defines structured text
  messages for the financial services industry

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Possible security standards

• Security required to
• Prevent unauthorized manipulation of data
• Authenticate the sender of electronic messages

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Other possible technical standards

• Internal verification procedures
• Maintaining data accuracy
• Verify identity of message senders
• Respect limits set for the commitment period
  reserve and sink units

• User interfaces
• With the public, legal entities, other registries
  and the transaction log

• Data storage
• Accounting conventions and data retention

Registry administrators
Institutional and legal frameworks
etc, etc, etc .
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Development of standards - ISO
International Organization for Standardization
(ISO) 12,000 ISO standards since establishment in
1947 Steps in the process 1. Define the technical
scope of the future standard(working groups of
experts from interested countries,including
industry, research, government, consumer
bodies) 2. Negotiation of detailed specification
for the standard(consensus-building
stage) 3. Formal approval as an ISO
standard(requiring approval by two thirds of
members actively participating) Reviews normally
occur at intervals of not more than 5 years
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Development of standards - ECSDA

• European Central Securities Depositories
  Association (ECSDA)
• Formed in 1997 to develop links for cross-border
  securities trading
• Settlement and payment in Euros
• Involves CSDs, investors, market intermediaries
  and banks
• The model
• Each CSD needs only one gateway no individual
  networks
• Real-time, automated processing
• Standardization of links across full network
• A single message carrier
• A manual processing fall-back option

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Development of standards - more on ECSDA

• ECSDA development of standards
• 1. Defined the high-level model of how they
  wanted to work (working group 1)
• 2. Refined the model developed the detail
  (working group 3)
• 2. Developed the supporting technical design
  (working group 4)
• Working group 4 adopted ISO15022 standard
  messages
• Machine-readable messages
• SWIFT defines messages (in cooperation with
  ECSDA)
• ISO formally approves messages as being ISO15022
  compliant
• Can be used across the SWIFT network
• http//www.iso15022.org/

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Possible elements of the technical standards
www.unfccc.int
Andrew Howard UNFCCC secretariat ahoward_at_unfccc.in
t