World's Top Verifier of CO2 Claims Suffers New Credibility Blow

The world’s largest verifier of corporate climate goals risks lasting reputational damage unless it works quickly to address a string of missteps, according to the council of technical experts advising it.

The group in question is the Science Based Targets initiative, which has been embroiled in controversy since April, when it appeared to encourage a dramatic increase in the use of carbon credits to offset greenhouse-gas emissions. The move was interpreted by markets as a “de facto immediate change” to existing standards, “which would be a breach of the approved SBTi procedures,” the Technical Council of scientists and academics tasked with monitoring SBTi’s work wrote in a June 20 letter seen by Bloomberg.