By Mathew Carr

June 30-July 2, 2023 — On 19th June 2023, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), the standard-setter and validation body for corporate climate action, launched a six-week public consultation on beyond value chain mitigation (BVCM), which will inform the SBTi’s “upcoming guidance” on this topic.

BVCM was previously known as “carbon offsetting,” a term now so demonized companies are not often talking about it in the open. They are hushing it under the phrase BVCM. Turning it into an acronym hushes it even more.

SBTi is a kind of industry – environmental hybrid group where if your company doesn’t join and comply with its rules ….the indication is your climate transition is not “science based”.

This consultation does contain some thoughtful stuff that is worthy of your time…and just might help save the climate, given anti-woke messaging that pervades some mainstream press and social media.

Unedited SBTi speak:

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The SBTi’s Corporate Net-Zero Standard makes it clear that companies should invest in BVCM in addition to their near- and long-term emission reduction targets. It defines BVCM as: ‘Action to mitigate emissions outside company value chains, such as purchasing high-quality, jurisdictional REDD+ credits or investing in direct air capture.’

The open, transparent and multi-stakeholder public consultation will run between June 19 and July 30, 2023. Anyone interested in contributing their views is invited to complete the survey to provide their feedback on the questions posed in the public consultation document.

Following the public consultation period, the SBTi will review the insights and develop the final BVCM guidance. This will help to inform companies’ decision-making when looking to invest in climate finance and mitigation, and enable them to holistically play their part in the global transformation to net-zero.

View previous SBTi blogs on BVCM: Net-Zero: Urgent Beyond Value Chain Mitigation Is Essential and Going Above and Beyond to Contribute to Societal Net-Zero

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The document does contain some interesting ideas. Eg se the following snips from pp21-22. This appears to be conflating wealthy people and rich corporations, which makes some sense.

(Made this story clearer July 2)