Center for Green Market Activation Shares Insights on SBTi’s Recent Technical Outputs

On July 30, the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) published four technical outputs as part of its process to revise the SBTi Corporate Net Zero Standard. The Center for Green Market Activation and the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance co-published the following early takeaways:

1. 1. These outputs start SBTi, the world’s largest validator of corporate climate goals, down a promising path towards providing companies with additional tools through which they can demonstrate progress towards ambitious Scope 3 goals.

2. Among other options, SBTi is exploring the role of environmental attribute certificates (EACs) – instruments that represent and communicate the environmental and/or climate-related attributes of commodities, activities, or projects – in addressing value chain emissions. The consideration of EACs differed from traditional carbon credits, which they stated could not be counted as emission reductions toward science-based targets.

3. While SBTi said that more work is needed before firm guidance can be given, they are particularly focused on exploring EACs derived from chain of custody models like book-and-claim systems. Book-and-claim systems separate environmental attributes from physical commodities, making it easier to connect customers willing to pay a premium with providers of green goods and services. Both the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA) and the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA) utilize book-and-claim systems in their efforts to aggregate and operationalize demand for low and zero carbon aviation and maritime fuels.

4. SBTi emphasized that usage of such book-and-claim systems should come with clear guardrails and potentially be limited to sources that can demonstrably lead to net-zero aligned market transformation. These comments provide a strong signal to companies to focus their investments on the highest quality EACs.

5. The Advanced and Indirect Mitigation (AIM) Platform is called out as an example of current work underway to provide greater clarity and direction on EACs.

We look forward to working with SBTi and through the AIM Platform to bring comfort and build the evidence base for EACs usage towards climate goals.

“We welcome the latest release of technical outputs of SBTi and are grateful for the hard work that went into them,” said GMA CEO Kim Carnahan. “These outputs highlight the role that EACs could play in driving deep decarbonization of supply chains and the imperative for clear standards and guidance around their use. We couldn’t agree more. Coupling strong guardrails with new tools for value chain decarbonization could unleash urgently needed investment in clean fuels and materials. We realize we aren’t there yet, but we are excited to continue to engage with SBTi as they move forward with this essential work.”

GMA encourages all stakeholders to read SBTi’s materials and engage with them on a path toward updated Scope 3 guidance.