Amazon avoids carbon offset standard that Bezos helped fund

Amazon has become the first corporation to ignore a global standard for validating carbon offsets produced by a non-profit funded entirely by Jeff Bezos, the founder and executive chair of the United States' digital behemoth.

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is funding the development of a new standard that might help the online retailer and cloud computing provider overcome a shortage of quality-labeled offsets, allowing it to reach its goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to zero on a net basis by 2040. Critics are concerned that the change will cause market uncertainty and weaken the standards of carbon offsets.

Companies under pressure to reduce their emissions can purchase credits from developers of initiatives that absorb carbon, such as reforestation. The market for offsets has remained tiny due to the scarcity of projects that can demonstrate their climate benefits.

Amazon informed Reuters that it has completed work on Abacus, a framework for assessing the quality of carbon offsets in reforestation and agroforestry. Amazon collaborated with carbon registry Verra to create the standard as an alternative to one produced by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), the world's largest coalition of corporate sector and environmental groups dedicated to authenticating carbon offsets. In 2022, Verra announced that it would collaborate with Amazon and its Abacus working group to produce the label.

Bezos is one of ICVCM's largest funders, having invested at least $11 million in ICVCM and its sister organisation, the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative, since their inception in 2021.

Amazon's head of carbon neutralisation, Jamey Mulligan, stated in an interview that the corporation assessed and supported ICVCM's work but desired a more ambitious norm.

"We want to make sure that every credit investment has a genuine, conservatively calculated, and validated impact on emissions," Mulligan added. He declined to say whether Bezos was involved in Amazon's decision.

Bezos couldn't be reached for comment.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Meta (NASDAQ:META), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) have announced plans to acquire up to 20 million metric tonnes of Abacus-certified credits.

Pedro Martins Barata, co-chair of ICVCM's expert group, expressed concern over the establishment of a rival standard and hoped that Abacus would eventually be integrated into ICVCM.

"Otherwise, you'll go back into a complicated market situation where each group of enterprises will find their own criteria to support and claim to be a specific form of quality," he explained.

Martins Barata noted that ICVCM was studying Verra's technique for creating carbon offsets from agroforestry and reforestation initiatives, and that if approved, the Abacus label might be compatible with the ICVCM label.

Kelley Kizzier, director of corporate action and markets at Bezos Earth Fund and a member of ICVCM's board, believes Abacus complements rather than competes with ICVCM. She also declined to discuss Bezos' position.

"What we need to work on is developing high-integrity offsets." "There is room for a lot more actors to do that," Kizzier stated.