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CEO Daniel Klier leaves role at South Pole carbon consultancy

Two people with knowledge of the situation said that on Thursday, the head of South Pole, an carbon finance consultancy and project development company, left his position and was replaced with immediate effect by Nadia Kaddouri, current chief financial officer.

Daniel Klier was appointed CEO of South Pole in May 2024. He had to lead a turnaround as a response to concerns regarding the Kariba Forestation Project in Zimbabwe, in which South Pole was involved.

Klier did not respond to an immediate request for comment. It is unclear why he left the Swiss firm. Klier is expected to join the advisory board of the company, according to a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. These sources are not authorized to comment publicly on this matter.

'COMPREHENSIVE TRANSFORMATION'

South Pole stated in a September statement that the company had focused its efforts over the past two years on "a comprehensive transformation" of their carbon finance consultancy.

A new advisory board was appointed and a review of the company's quality, compliance and risk protocols were conducted. The company is also backed by Lightrock, an impact investor.

South Pole's involvement in the Kariba project REDD+, part of United Nations efforts for curbing carbon emissions by protecting forest, was criticised 2023.

The media questioned if the project preserved as much of the forest as promised, and claimed that the communities had not benefited as much as expected.

South Pole, the developer of carbon assets for the project, and the company responsible for the sale of credits generated on the market, terminated its relationship with Kariba in 2023.

In a press release at the time, it stated that it only sold carbon credit from the project which were verified and fully valid by Verra.

In November 2023, South Pole's Board appointed a new leadership team to improve governance and selection of projects. The board said that it was "determined" to learn from its experience working with the Kariba project in Zimbabwe.

Verra said last month that a review found that more than 15 millions excess credits had been issued.

The actual deforestation in the Kariba Project... was much lower than the initial estimated deforestation," the report said.

Klier's LinkedIn profile states that he was the global head of sustainable financing at HSBC from 2017 to 2021, following a five year stint as group director of strategy. Before joining South Pole, Klier was the CEO of sustainability data company ESG Book. (Reporting and editing by Virginia Furness)

(source: Reuters)