CEO of world's corporate climate arbiter to quit amid turmoil
by AFP Staff Writers
Paris (AFP) July 3, 2024

The chief executive officer of the world's main verifier for corporate climate targets is stepping down after facing staff demands that he quit over the organisation's backflip on carbon credits.

Luiz Amaral said late Tuesday he would depart as CEO of the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) at the end of the month for "personal reasons".

It follows a staff revolt in April after SBTi announced it would consider allowing the companies it vets to use carbon credits to offset pollution across their supply chain.

Carbon credits are generated by projects that reduce or avoid emissions like renewable energy or tree planting, but critics say they allow the companies that buy them to keep polluting without cleaning up their act.

SBTi's decision represented a reversal of its long-held stance on the limited use of such offsets, and sparked immediate calls for Amaral and the group's board to resign.

Amaral's statement made no reference to the furore, but cited personal reasons that "require my full attention at this time, prompting my decision to step down".

The group's chief legal officer, Susan Jenny Ehr, would act as CEO on an interim basis.

SBTi, which is partnered with the UN and WWF, and receives funding from the Bezos Earth Fund and IKEA Foundation, is the gold standard benchmark for assessing the net zero plans of big businesses.

Verification by SBTi allows companies to say their climate plans align with science and the goals of the Paris agreement to limit global warming.

- 'License to pollute' -

Amaral said the organisation had verified the climate targets of more than 5,500 companies and financial institutions and thousands of others were seeking validation.

The organisation had previously held a narrow view on carbon credits, requiring companies take action first to reduce their greenhouse gas output, and only turn to offsets for the remaining, hardest-to-cut emissions.

Then in April it flagged relaxing these rules in regards to offsetting Scope 3 emissions, which occur in the value chain, and represent the lion's share of the carbon footprints of most companies.

In an open letter, staff criticised the way the decision was taken, accusing the board of ignoring the organisation's internal expert and scientific advice about the use of carbon credits.

A single credit is supposed to represent one tonne of CO2 removed from the atmosphere or prevented from entering it, but revelations some do little or nothing for the environment have damaged their credibility.

Just hours before Amaral's resignation, more than 80 civil society groups including Greenpeace and Amnesty International publicly called for SBTi to rule out the use of carbon credits.

"Offsetting often ends up providing the social license for high-emitting activities to continue" and allowing companies to use them would "likely slow down" global efforts to address climate change, they warned.

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