An influential standards-setting group is trying to clarify how businesses can use technologies that pull carbon dioxide from the air and sea to meet their climate commitments.
The move by the Science-Based Targets initiative on Tuesday came as part of a broader proposal to overhaul its rules for companies that rely on the group to vet their net-zero emission pledges. It follows a messy internal dispute that spilled into public view last year about what role — if any — carbon reduction or removal credits should play in meeting those goals.
Since SBTi was founded a decade ago, more than 3,000 companies have set emission-cutting targets using the group’s standards, or vowed to do so. Those include tech giants like Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, as well as top retailers such as Walmart and Home Depot.
The new proposal would allow corporations in “hard-to-abate sectors” like steelmaking and cement production to use carbon credits for addressing their so-called residual emissions — the small percentage of greenhouse gases that remain when a company reaches the year it intended to have zeroed out its climate pollution.
