The Zurich company South Pole doesn’t stay out of the headlines. According to a current article in the US magazine “New Yorker”, which is based on research by SRF, “Follow the Money” and “Die Zeit”, the certification body Verra announcedto immediately suspend South Pole’s flagship project – Kariba REDD+ – in order to investigate the allegations.
Kariba REDD+ is one of the largest CO2 compensation projects in the world. With the forest protection project in Zimbabwe, companies such as Gucci, Nestle and Volkswagen have voluntarily offset their emissions in order to adorn themselves with the “climate neutral” label.
The project, which is largely responsible for the success of the billion-dollar company South Pole, has come under increasing criticism in recent months. “10 vor 10” reported that only a fraction of the money could actually be verified on site in Zimbabwe.
And the SRF podcast “Climate Trade” revealed that, on the one hand, the project criminalizes local hunters, but at the same time paid trophy hunting takes place in the Kariba project area – even though customers were promised that the elephants would be protected. The Kariba project owner in Zimbabwe, who manages the hunting rights, also benefits from this. Research by The New Yorker confirms this.
When asked, Verra wrote that they were “extremely disturbed” by the allegations and that they would investigate them thoroughly. In particular, the new information about the distribution model of the money and about trophy hunting on the project site prompted them to intervene. The Verra certification body, which oversees most such forest protection projects, only suspends projects in very serious cases.
What consequences this has for South Pole and the Kariba project depends on the results of the investigation. Until then, no certificates may be generated and sold. If the allegations can be proven that some of the compensation certificates sold have turned out to be invalid, they must be compensated for with certificates from other projects.
Restructuring at South Pole
When asked, South Pole wrote that it had taken note of Verra’s investigation and would fully support it. In addition, “in light of the new information reported about the project,” South Pole’s role in the project would also be “actively reviewed.”
After the reports about the problematic conditions at the Kariba project and at the South Pole management in general, numerous customers distanced themselves from it. The project’s certificate prices fell many times over. Meanwhile, criticism of the voluntary compensation market became increasingly louder.
The alleged misconduct apparently also has economic consequences, as new research by SRF and “Follow the Money” shows. South Pole announced internally last week that it would have to lay off a fifth of its staff due to “a major restructuring”.
Numerous employees received an email asking them to volunteer for the workforce reduction. This is confirmed by several independent sources. South Pole itself does not want to comment on this and writes: “Like every company, we regularly assess whether our global team is sustainably structured and staffed based on market dynamics and demand.”
SRF 4 News, October 19, 2023, 6:25 a.m