2024-06-26 09:30:45
SBTi is an organisation that validates companies’ trajectory to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050. It has been the subject of strong criticism since it announced its intention to consider carbon credits as an additional tool to combat climate change.
Founded in 2015, the SBTi (Science-based targets Initiative) is an organization created by the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project), the United Nations Global Compact (UN Global Compact), the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Its work is to develop standards and tools to enable companies to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050 at the latest, but also to validate their trajectory to achieve this objective. It is now one of the main labels in the field of corporate decarbonization and claims to support more than 4,000 private sector groups, including multinationals. This organization is now in turmoil and is even accused of greenwashing.
The cause: a communiqué published last April, in which the SBTi announces that it has started work on revising its flagship standard called Corporate Net-Zero. It specifies that it intends to authorize the use of environmental attribute certificates (EACs) for the purpose of reducing scope 3 emissions, considering from now on that carbon credits are an additional tool to combat climate change. This shift is the result of numerous consultations on this subject and the SBTi writes: “that a first draft of the basic rules, thresholds and safeguards for the potential use of environmental attribute certificates for scope 3 emission reduction purposes will be published by SBTi by July 2024.”
Scopes are categories of greenhouse gas emissions used when carrying out carbon assessments. While Scope 1 and 2 emissions are related to a company’s own operations, Scope 3 emissions include all indirect emissions occurring in the supply chain upstream and downstream of the company. They are related to the purchase of goods, raw materials and services, as well as the use of the products or services sold. However, in some sectors, such as fuel suppliers, Scope 3 can represent the vast majority of a company’s emissions.
Do not contravene the fundamental principles of carbon accounting
The SBTi’s announcement has provoked numerous reactions from climate action actors, starting with the organization’s own employees who accuse its board of directors of having taken this decision without consulting its technical council, and that it damages the credibility of the label.
For his part, Carbone 4 is very critical and considers this position to be contrary to scientific consensus and to contravene the fundamental principles of carbon accounting. This consultancy firm specialising in energy and climate issues considers that the use of carbon credits would maintain the illusion that a company can get rid of the problem on its own, using just a few euros. “However, one of the main virtues of the famous scope 3 (its main difficulty too) lies precisely in the requirement for cooperation that it implies: it thus allows the company to be resituated in its network of attachments, to bring on board, beyond itself, other actors, through a play of mutual influences.”
In response to these criticisms, including that from Bloomberg magazine, the SBTi has posted a reply in which it informs that no standards have been modified at this time and no changes can or will be made until the approved standard operating procedure for the development of standards has been completed. In other words, the Technical Council of this organization will receive the draft of the new Corporate Net-Zero standard for review and approval, and then it will be submitted to the Board of Directors.
In July, the SBTi is due to publish a discussion paper presenting a preliminary view on the evolution of the organisation’s conceptual framework for defining scope 3 objectives. The draft of the new standard will be submitted for public consultation, which is expected to take place by the end of 2024.
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