The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), one of the key organizations focused on aligning corporate environmental sustainability action with the global goals of limiting climate change, announced today the appointment of its first CEO, Dr. Luiz Fernando do Amaral.

Amaral joins SBTi after serving for six years at World Resources Institute (WRI) – one of the founding organizations behind SBTi – most recently as Director, Global Solutions for Commodities & Finance, and has held leadership positions in several sustainability focused initiatives, including the Brazilian National Climate Change Fund, andGreen Fund, Tropical Forest Alliance, and as an advisor to Minerva Foods and Cargill. Prior to joining WRI, Amaral served as Head of Sustainability – South America for financial services provider Rabobank.

Lila Karbassi, Chair of the SBTi board and Chief of Programmes at the United Nations Global Compact, said:

“The global economy has less than eight years left to halve emissions and the SBTi has a significant challenge ahead to accelerate corporate decarbonization in line with this fundamental objective. Luiz’s appointment is a vital part of our overarching plan to strengthen and build the initiative to deliver in this critical decade.”

In his new role, Amaral will spearhead SBTi’s business strategy to accelerate the exponential growth of science-based targets across sectors and geographies, and lead the ongoing review of the initiative’s new technical governance structure.

Amaral said:

“The SBTi is setting the global standard for science-based corporate target setting, filling an essential gap to unlock urgent and ambitious emissions reductions at scale. I could not be more excited to join to help drive increased corporate climate action at this critical time. My thanks goes to our board for their trust in me, as well as the co-founders, the team and our partners for all that has been achieved so far. Looking forward, we will ramp up SBTi work by: (a) continuing to guarantee that the latest science and data remains at the center of decision making, (b) ensuring science-based targets are accessible for all companies worldwide and (c) achieving SBTi’s institutional maturity and governance needed for impact at scale.”

Founded in 2015, SBTi was formed as a collaboration between CDP, World Resources Institute (WRI), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), with the goal to establish science-based environmental target setting as a standard corporate practice. The organization recently unveiled its action plan for 2022, which includes the expansion of its sector specific guidelines for additional hard-to-decarbonize sectors, the development of a framework to provide a standardized and robust mechanism to track organizations’ progress against science-based targets, and working towards updating its Scope 3 target setting methods and criteria.

Alberto Carrillo Pineda, Managing Director and Co-Founder of the SBTi, said:

“Since its inception, the SBTi has grown from a concept into a movement with more than 2,000 companies progressing science-based targets worldwide. This is a huge achievement but there is much more to do. The appointment of Luiz is part of a wide range of work we are carrying out to strengthen the SBTi and to mainstream the adoption of science-based targets. We are looking forward to working closely with him to deliver this next phase of rapid growth.”