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SEC Staff Consulted With Green Financial Firm Accused Of Selling ‘Fictitious’ Carbon Credits

https://dailycaller.com/2023/03/11/sec-staff-green-firm-allegedl-fake-credits/

By JOHN HUGH DEMASTRI

  • U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officials met with representatives of a Swiss climate firm now under fire for allegedly selling “fictitious” carbon credits to discuss climate regulations, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation.
  • Millions of dollars worth of carbon credits issued by the Swiss firm South Pole could not be reliably tied back to actual greenhouse gas reductions, according to a report by Dutch investigative journalism outlet Follow the Money.
  • SEC officials met with a representative of South Pole in January 2022 and the company was cited multiple times in proposed rulemaking issued by the agency in March 2022, according to publicly available documents.

Officials at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) met with representatives of a Swiss climate consultancy firm now under fire for allegedly selling “fictitious” carbon credits, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.

SEC officials met with a representative of South Pole in January 2022 to discuss how the SEC might estimate the costs companies would face if they were made to include data related to their greenhouse gas emissions in their regular financial disclosures, according to a publicly available SEC memorandum. The company, an international powerhouse whose clients include Gucci and Volkswagen, may have sold millions of dollars worth of carbon credits on the promise of environmental protection efforts that never actually occured, according to a report by Dutch investigative journalism outlet Follow the Money. (RELATED: Biden Admin Officials Worked Closely With Climate Group Chaired By Massive Dem Donor, Emails Show)

South Pole manages the “world’s largest portfolio of carbon projects” and allows companies to offset their greenhouse gas emissions by investing in projects that reduce carbon emissions elsewhere, allowing them to meet carbon emissions targets without radically altering their business model, according to its website. However, the firm appears to have sold credits based on its signature Kariba Forest Protection project in Zimbabwe, despite being aware that the project may have only generated one-third of the greenhouse gas offsets the company publicly claimed, Follow the Money reported.

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