SBTi funding, Scope 3 EAC announcement and CEO exit

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is a body based in the United Kingdom that checks whether company climate targets are consistent with the Paris Agreement. According to its funding page, in the twelve months to the end of December 2024, 72.8% of its revenue came from core donations, 24.6% from approval fees paid by companies to SBTi Services Limited, which it wholly owns, and 2.6% from project donations. SBTi says that company revenue has no influence on target decisions.

The approval fee was reported as about $9,500 per near-term target for large companies and about $1,250 for small businesses. A consultancy, Anthesis, put the total cost, including internal staff and outside advisers, at between $15,000 and $250,000. In 2021 the Bezos Earth Fund and the IKEA Foundation each gave $18 million, and Laudes gave $1 million, a total of $37 million. Past core donors included Amazon, the Bezos Earth Fund and the IKEA Foundation; past project donors included ArcelorMittal, Danone, LafargeHolcim, IKEA Supply AG and the UPS Foundation.

From September 2023 the board was chaired by Francesco Starace, chief executive of Enel from 2014 to 2023 and a partner of the investment firm EQT. The board also included Iván Duque, a former president of Colombia and a Bezos Earth Fund fellow. In March 2024 the Bezos Earth Fund convened the SBTi board and donors in London and, according to the Financial Times, defended the use of carbon credits; the fund also finances ICVCM and VCMI. The fund denies a link between the meeting and the later board statement.

On 9 April 2024 the board issued a statement, without consulting staff or the Technical Council, that opened the way to the use of environmental attribute certificates (EACs, which include carbon credits) for Scope 3 emissions, those arising in a company's supply chain and in the use of its products. Twenty-one advisers, about 20% of the advisory group, asked for the statement to be withdrawn. Doreen Stabinsky, a member of the Technical Council, said it was not a science-based decision. Staff asked on 10 April for the CEO to be removed and the statement reversed. Three days after the statement SBTi added that the standard had not changed.

On 2 July 2024 SBTi announced that CEO Luiz Amaral would step down for personal reasons, with Susan Jenny Ehr as interim CEO and Starace as chair. The final rule on credit use was not confirmed in the sources reviewed. Separately, over about a decade 695 companies had their commitments withdrawn or ended on expiry. Amazon's commitment was removed in August 2023 because it did not submit targets on time. The Bezos Earth Fund's grant ended in December 2024; the fund and IKEA had provided 61% of revenue in the previous year.