As the fallout continues over the Science Based Targets initiative’s approach to offsets, questions arise over the net zero target-setting landscape for corporates. 

In 2024, the number of listed companies with a climate commitment validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) jumped to 20% from just 12% in 2023. In 2020, a mere 1% of listed companies had a decarbonisation target validated by the organisation.

According to SBTI’s website, the number of companies and financial institutions setting greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets and having them validated doubled to 4,204 by the end of 2023 from 2,079 in 2022.

This steep growth marks SBTi as a focal point of corporate climate action, said Guy Turner, Head of Carbon Markets at MSCI. “It holds a significant cachet among companies,” he explained.

But SBTi’s status as the gold standard for companies serious about decarbonising in line with the Paris Agreement took a serious hit last month after a highly public spat between staff and executives.

On 9 April, SBTi’s board of trustees released a public statement  announcing a consultation on allowing validated companies to use carbon credits to offset their Scope 3 emissions. Mere hours later, SBTi staff and advisors fired off a letter to management, calling for the statement to be withdrawn and for the resignation of CEO Luiz Fernando Do Amaral and any board members who supported the decision.

The incident reheats the long-running debate on whether credits are a credible way for companies to reduce their carbon emissions. But it also raises questions about whether organisations are fit to assess and accredit the decarbonisation strategies of corporates.

Cottage industry

MSCI’s Turner addressed this issue in a LinkedIn post that went viral, arguing that while NGOs have played a critical role in the creation of global decarbonisation frameworks and benchmarks to date, an update to their modus operandi was needed, given high stakes measured in degrees of global warming and investment dollars.

Using the voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) as an example, he noted that what used to be a cottage industry is now in the mainstream. Billions of dollars are dependent on decisions made by its ecosystem of verification bodies and carbon credit sellers. “I don’t think the organisations have grown up in line with the decisions they are making.”

SBTi, a UK-registered charity, is a collaboration between the UN Global Compact and NGOs CDP, World Resources Institute and the