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Job Purpose and Background in summary

Are you passionate about securing the future of the planet by preventing catastrophic climate change? Do you want to apply your inquisitive nature, organizational skills, and GHG expertise at the cutting edge of corporate climate action in one of the world’s fastest-growing sustainability initiatives? The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has an exciting opportunity for summer support on the validation team.

About CDP

CDP is a not-for-profit charity that runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts. The world’s economy looks to CDP as the gold standard of environmental reporting with the richest and most comprehensive dataset on corporate and city action. In 2021 we launched our new five-year strategy: Accelerating the Rate of Change - find out more here. Visit https://cdp.net/en or follow us @CDP to find out more.

About the Team

Do you enjoy GHG accounting and learning about industries in geographies all over the world? The SBTi’s Target Validation Team (TVT) has a unique opportunity for Master’s degree students, specifically from the University of Edinburgh’s Carbon Management and Climate Change Finance and Investment programs. The validation team receives submissions from world-leading companies (see the almost 5,000 companies here) in order to validate alignment with the latest climate science to limit warming to 1.5C by 2050. Investigating the GHG inventories, identifying and filling gaps in reporting, correcting errors in emission allocation, and ensuring alignment to SBTi standards allows the TVT to validate corporate and financial institution targets. The team is looking for interested applicants to contribute to driving ambitious corporate climate action and mitigation. Working with some of the world’s leading companies and GHG accounting experts provides a key insight into how corporate climate priorities are regarded and the main problems and solutions that industries face. If you are interested in understanding how the GHG Protocol and SBTi standards are applied to thousands of companies, this role is for you!

Key responsibilities include:

• Perform high-level technical screenings on company submissions in order to determine readiness for validation;
• Work with target analysts on difficult company validations, including sectors such as power, maritime shipping, aviation, chemicals, cement, forestry land and agriculture (FLAG), etc;
• Support the target analysts to reduce the number of extended timeline companies by preparing questions based on GHG emissions allocations or science-based target formulation;
• Prepare desk research and initial GHG inventory questions with the validation team for companies booked in for future validation slots;
• Review submitted GHG inventories against the GHG Protocol Standard and SBTi resources to assess conformity and discuss with validation team members;
• Support with ad hoc validation-related tasks

You will have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria:

• Experience working in a virtual environment;
• Knowledge of GHG emissions accounting and understanding of GHG Protocol;
• Exposure to SBTi standards and sector specific guidance is desirable but not essential;
• Working knowledge of key sustainability concepts such as removals, emission factors, offsetting, etc;
• Ability to work independently with limited supervision;
• Familiarity with working in a fast paced environment.
• Ability to research and infer company activities and understand corresponding GHG accounting

Salary and benefits:

• Access to world-leading experts in a variety of fields to support/answer thesis questions (ex: PhD level experts in AFOLU, GHG Protocol, Smart Freight Centre, etc);
• Working directly with the world-leading team on GHG accounting and exposure to 100’s of GHG inventories a month;
• Flexible working hours as the team is based in 6 time zones;
• Ability to work on projects/tasks in your own time;
• Working in one of the most successful and fast-growing initiatives driving climate action in the corporate space;
• Living wage.

Before you apply

We’ll only use the information you provide to process your application. For more details on how we use your information, see our applicant’s privacy notice. By uploading your CV and cover letter, you are permitting CDP to use the information you have provided for recruitment purposes.

How to apply:

Please upload your CV in the application form along with a cover letter as an additional document setting out how you meet the required skills and experience or key responsibilities, which should be no more than two pages.