Carrying out technical assessment for carbon offset registry and possible establishment

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The request for expression of interest follows the Guidelines as per the Grant Agreement: P155885 - South Africa Partnership for Market Readiness - ZA-ETA-26771-CS-QCBS

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The National Treasury of South Africa has received a grant from the World Bank to appoint a suitable independent service provider that can support the Department of Energy to conduct the technical assessment and review the developed South African carbon offset administration system and registry infrastructure and development of the specification required to administer the process of outsourcing hosting of the ownership repository to a credible party outside of government to enable operationalization of the carbon offsets program.

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The activities included under this project are:

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Conduct a thorough technical assessment of the recently developed South African COAS registry infrastructure to identify and recommend corrective measures needed to ensure that the carbon offset registry meets all the domestic and international technical standards required to enable its smooth operation. The activity should be realised through the following sub-activities -

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Analyse the technical robustness and security reliability of the recently developed South African COAS registry infrastructure against the international best practice and domestic requirements.

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Analyse all the required legislative frameworks and domestic and international standards the South African carbon offsets registry should conform with.

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Based on the analytical findings of 3.1.1 and 3.1.2 identify any gaps and weaknesses in the COAS and registry infrastructure; develop and recommend a plan with corrective actions required to ensure that the registry infrastructure meets all the required legislative standards, technical robustness, and security requirements.

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Conduct a thorough analysis of how the carbon offset registry infrastructure should be linked to all other systems that are critical to the successful implementation of the overall carbon tax policy and carbon offset programme and make recommendations.

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Identify all the systems that the carbon offset registry infrastructure should be linked with and all the stakeholders who are critical and develop a clear implementation plan. Some of the critical systems will include the COAS, National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory System (NAEIS), Central Energy Database (CED), other monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems within government. Future linkages to the new market mechanism being developed under the Paris Agreement as well as bilateral or multilateral linkages with other jurisdictions such as the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EUTS), New Zealand, California and Canada.

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Operationalise the developed implementation plan in section 3.2.1 in a phased approach to ensure that in the end, the carbon offset registry is linked with all relevant systems required for the successful implementation of the carbon offset programme under the carbon tax policy.

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Develop a detailed Request of Proposal (RfP) document that will be used to administer an open and transparent process for outsourcing the hosting of the carbon offset ownership repository where the approved carbon offsets will be listed to enable transfer between the offset owners and taxpayers that will be needing carbon offsets for carbon tax purposes to a credible entity outside of government. The activity should be realised through the following sub-activities -

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Analyse and establish the requirements the carbon offset ownership repository should conform to, namely technical robustness, infrastructure, legal, financial and human resources against international best practice and domestic requirements of outsourcing hosting of South African carbon offset ownership repository to a credible entity outside of government.

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Analyse and identify all the required technical components i.e. hardware and underlying software and security features to enable a successful operationalisation of the carbon offset ownership repository after outsourcing to a credible entity outside of government for hosting.

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Based on the analytical findings of 3.3.1 and 3.3.2 develop a clear implementation plan with clear time lines and deliverables that should guide the process for outsourcing of hosting the carbon ownership repository to a credible entity outside of government. The implementation plan should also include clear institutional arrangement structure that will enable government to maintain control and exercise oversight role over the entity that will be hosting the ownership repository.

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Develop a detailed Request of Proposal (RfP) document that will be used to administer an open and transparent process of outsourcing of hosting of ownership repository to a credible entity outside of government. The RfP should include all the technical specifications, evaluation criteria and proposed cost recovery mechanisms that will enable the credible entity to host the carbon offset ownership repository and recover their costs of hosting the ownership repository.

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Final report capturing the outputs of all the project activities and sub-activities.

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The National Treasury invites eligible consultants to indicate their interest in providing these services. Interested consulting firms should demonstrate a minimum of 10 years track record working with Governments in research, policy, regulatory development, developing and implementing carbon market trading mechanisms and registries. Consultants may constitute Joint Ventures (JV) to enhance their chances of qualification provided profiles for all the involved companies are submitted as well attaching the JV Agreement between the parties. This shall involve having led 3 successful projects that developed and implemented carbon market trading mechanisms and registries. The shortlisting criteria are:

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Evidence of company registration

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Statement of capability, relevant experience and roles in the proposed projects

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Familiarity with the South African Carbon Tax Policy and understanding of carbon offsets mechanisms

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Costs of assignments undertaken

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Availability of appropriate skills among staff

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Experience in drafting terms of reference

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Ability to negotiate contracts with preferred entities.

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Interested consultants may obtain further information at the address below during office hours 08h00 to 16h30 hours local time, Mondays to Friday excluding public holidays.

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Expression of interest must be delivered in person in a sealed envelope clearly marked on the outside "Technical assessment of the developed South African Carbon Offset Registry and development of the specification required to administer the process of outsourcing hosting of the registry by a credible party outside of government to enable operationalization of the Carbon Offset program”, to the address below by 8 at 12:00 midday local time.