Amazon became the first company to bypass a global standard for verifying carbon offset, according to Reuters.
The standard was developed by a non-profit organisation funded largely by Jeff Bezos, founder and executive chairman of the US tech conglomerate.
Amazon is supporting the development of a new standard that could allow online merchants and cloud computing providers to overcome supply shortages for quality-labelled offsets. This would allow them to meet their goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2040.
However, critics raised concerns that the move could lead to confusion in the market and compromise carbon offset standards. Companies that need to cut emissions can buy credits from developers of projects that absorb carbon, such as through reforestation.
The market for offsets remains small due to the limited number of projects that can prove their climate benefits. Amazon announced the finalisation of Abacus, a verification system for carbon offsets from reforestation and agroforestry.
The company also developed a standard with the Verra carbon registry as an alternative to the standard developed by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM). This is the world’s largest grouping of private sector and environmental groups dedicated to validating carbon offset. Verra first announced that it was developing the label with Amazon and its Abacus working group in 2022.
More ambitious carbon offset standard
Bezos is one of ICVCM’s biggest donors, having invested at least $11 million in the Council and subsidiary organisation Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative since its launch in 2021. He does this through his $10 billion Earth Fund, which he created to fight climate change.
Jamey Mulligan, Amazon’s head of carbon neutralisation, stated that the company appreciated and supported ICVCM’s work, but it would prefer a more ambitious standard.
We want to ensure that every credit investment has a real, conservatively quantified and verified impact on emissions.
Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Salesforce stated that they planned to buy up to 20 million tonnes of Abacus-certified credits. Meanwhile, Pedro Martins Barata, co-chair of ICVCM’s panel of experts, expressed concern about the development of an alternative standard. He hopes that Abacus will eventually be incorporated into ICVCM.
“Otherwise, you get again into a confusing state in the market where each set of companies will find their own standards they want to support and they will say that they’re a particular type of quality.”
However, Kelley Kizzier, director of corporate actions and markets at Bezos Earth Fund and a member of ICVCM’s board, said Abacus complemented rather than competed with ICVCM.
What we need to focus on is generating high-integrity [offsets]. There is room for lots of actors to do that.
