Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the issuance of subpoenas to climate reporting and assessment organizations CDP and the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), launching an investigation into alleged potential antitrust violations and deceptive trade practices.

Referring to CDP and SBTi as a “climate cartel,” the AG said that the investigation aims to determine whether the organizations “violated state consumer protection or antitrust laws by coercing companies into disclosing proprietary data and paying for access under the guise of environmental transparency.”

Founded in 2000, CDP runs a global environmental disclosure system, enabling investors and other stakeholders to measure and track organization’s performance in key environmental sustainability areas including climate, forests, and water security. In 2024, a record of more than 22,700 companies disclosed through CDP, increasing by 8% over the prior year.

The SBTi was founded in 2015 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 organizations’ key functions include defining and promoting best practice in emissions reductions and net-zero targets in line with climate science, providing technical assistance to companies who set science-based targets, and providing companies with independent assessment and validation of their emissions reduction targets. The organization published its  flagship cross-sector Corporate Net-Zero Standard in 2021, and is currently in the process of developing an update to the standard, Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.

In the Florida AG’s statement announcing the investigation, Uthmeier said that SBTi “sells companies validation of their climate goals, and “then directs them back to CDP to report their progress, creating what appears to be a profit-driven feedback loop.”

The AG said that the investigation will examine “deceptive trade practices,” by the organizations including selling services to obtain better scores and public endorsements, creating incentives for corporations to pay in exchange for favorable treatment, and misrepresenting the objectivity of environmental data used by investors and consumers, as well as potential antitrust violations, including whether coordination between CDP, financial institutions, and investment services constitutes unlawful market manipulation, and if CDP’s initiatives to “pressure or punish” companies that don’t disclose on its platform result in anticompetitive effects.

The initiative marks the latest in a series of anti-ESG initiatives by Republican politicians in the U.S. over the past few years, which has gained momentum since the election of Donald Trump. Florida has been one of the key states at the forefront of the movement, with Governor DeSantis signing a series of anti-ESG measures into law, and leading an alliance of states to coordinate their anti-ESG actions and initiatives.

Uthmeier said:

“Radical climate activists have hijacked corporate governance and weaponized it against the free market. Florida will not sit back while international pressure groups shake down American companies to fund their ESG grift. We’re using every tool of the law to stop the Climate Cartel from exploiting businesses and misleading consumers.”

In a statement provided to ESG Today, CDP said that it “is aware of the statement made by the Florida Attorney General concerning an investigation of environmental organizations,” but that it was “not able to comment on the statement or allegations made at this time.”