The charity that serves as a major watchdog on corporate climate commitments faces allegations that it’s caving to industry pressure to relax standards. The Science Based Targets initiative assesses companies’ sustainability pledges and develops standards for how companies can set goals to fight climate change that are backed by science. SBTi’s policies are supposed to prevent greenwashing, which is when companies make misleading statements about their environmental impact.
Weeks after the meeting, on April 9th, the SBTi Board of Trustees released a statement that sent such a shock through the organization that at least one of its scientific advisors reportedly resigned. The statement said that certificates representing carbon offsets could be used to address indirect emissions resulting from a company’s supply chain and the use of its products. That’s a big deal since those indirect emissions often make up the largest chunk of a company’s carbon footprint.