SBTi: the Science Based Targets initiative explained

SBTi is the Science Based Targets initiative, the body that defines what a “science-based” corporate emissions target is. It develops standards, tools and guidance so that companies and financial institutions can set greenhouse gas reduction targets in line with reaching net-zero by 2050 at the latest.

According to its own account of who it is, the SBTi was founded as a collaboration between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, the We Mean Business Coalition, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). It is now a charity registered in England and Wales, with its registered office in London.

That makes the SBTi meaning quite specific. It is not a regulator, a reporting standard or a certification scheme. It is a voluntary standard-setter for emissions targets, and the phrase “setting science-based targets is entirely voluntary” is its own. The eligibility check above tells you whether the shorter SME route is likely to be open to you; the answer is provisional, because SBTi Services confirms it from your financial statements at registration.

The SBTi splits two jobs that are often confused. The charity writes the criteria. Its subsidiary, SBTi Services, checks individual targets against them. SBTi Services describes itself as a distinct legal entity that operates independently from the standard-setter, and any profit it makes passes to the charity.

The criteria are free to use. Validation is not: SBTi Services charges a fee that varies by the type and size of organisation and the type of target. Our step-by-step guide on how to set science-based targets covers the process, the SME route and the current fees.

Once validated, targets are published on the SBTi Target Dashboard, which is what people usually mean by “SBTi companies taking action”. It lists companies with validated targets, those with active commitments and those whose commitments were removed for missing the 24-month deadline. It is updated every Thursday.

The SBTi's standards and guidance page describes two families of target. Near-term targets set the reductions a company must make over the next five to ten years. Net-zero targets combine near-term targets with a long-term target to reach net-zero across the value chain by 2050 at the latest, or 2040 for the power sector. Land-intensive companies add a third layer, FLAG targets. Pick a tab to see what each one requires.

A net-zero target cannot be validated on its own: it requires approved near-term targets. The long-term target covers the emissions that remain; the SBTi's guide to how target setting works puts it as reductions of 90% or more no later than 2050. The company also commits to neutralise any emissions left once the long-term target is met.

Most companies use the cross-sector pathway, which the SBTi says is used by 90% of target-setters. Companies in high-emitting sectors with published sector guidance (steel, cement, power, maritime, buildings and others) are required, or in some cases recommended, to use it for the activities it covers.

On 14 April 2026 the SBTi changed how the absolute contraction approach sets the minimum cut. Before, any base year from 2020 onwards was treated as if the clock had started in 2020, which the CNZS V1.3.1 Method Appendixsays led to annual rates of 8.4% for a 2025 base year and 10.5% for 2026. Now the rate depends on the time left between the base year and the net-zero year, with a floor. The SBTi's announcement of the update says the 4.2% minimum annual rate is unchanged. Here is what that means for one company, with the arithmetic shown.

The company

Step 1: coverage

Scope 1 and 2 targets must cover at least 95% of combined scope 1 and 2 emissions under C5, so at least 9,500 of the 10,000 tonnes; this company covers all of it. Scope 3 is 40,000 ÷ 50,000 = 80% of the total, well over the 40% trigger in C4, so a scope 3 target is required. Under C6 it must cover at least 67% of scope 3: 0.67 × 40,000 = 26,800 tonnes. Categories 1 and 4 together are 27,500 tonnes, or 68.75%, which clears the bar.

Step 2: the rates

The Method Appendix's Equation 1 divides each pathway's net-zero ambition by the years left, and Equation 5 applies the floor. Its Table 2 gives the inputs: scope 1 reaches 90% by 2050, scope 2 reaches 100% by 2040, and well-below 2°C scope 3 reaches 75%.

Set as separate scope 1 and scope 2 targets, the company commits to 4,740 and 2,667 tonnes by 2030: 7,407 tonnes in all, 25.9% below 10,000. A combined scope 1 and 2 target is worked out on a blended rate instead; the Method Appendix's Table 1 gives 5.13% a year for a 2025 base year with a 50:50 split between the two scopes, 3.60% corrected up to 4.2% where it is all scope 1, and 6.67% where it is all scope 2. The scope 3 target reads: reduce absolute scope 3 GHG emissions from purchased goods and services and upstream transportation and distribution 15% by 2030 from a 2025 base year.

The SBTi published Version 2.0 of its Corporate Net-Zero Standard on 11 June 2026. It was approved by the Technical Council on 8 May 2026 and adopted by the Board of Trustees on 21 May 2026. It is final, but it cannot yet be used to validate a target.

The SBTi Services transition guideand the V2.0 Standard's own version table agree on the window: V2.0 validations open on 1 February 2027, submissions under V1.3.1 close on 31 January 2028, and from 1 February 2028 every new submission uses V2.0. The timeline further down this page shows where each date stands today.

Two SBTi documents state these dates differently. The V2.0 Main Changes Document gives an effective date one day earlier, and the “what comes next” blog gives an earlier close for Version 1. We follow the Standard and the transition guide, which agree with each other. If a date matters to a submission, confirm it with SBTi Services.

Existing validated targets stay valid, and companies do not need to reset them. What V2.0 changes, and how its new “Ongoing Emissions Responsibility” and best-efforts approach work, is covered on our guide to the Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.

Scope 3 is usually the largest part of a company's footprint and needs the most data. The Corporate Near-Term Criteria V5.3.1 set out when a company must target it, how much it must cover, and how ambitious the target must be.

The inventory follows the 15 categories of the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard. The SBTi does not accept “negligible” as a reason to leave an emissions source out: it must be quantified or disclosed as an exclusion. Our scope 3 emissions guide explains the categories and the data problems.

The 67% can be met partly with an engagement target. Under C19 the company states what share of emissions, or failing that of procurement spend, the engagement target covers; where it uses spend, it must estimate the emissions that spend represents so SBTi Services can check C6. A common mistake is to count optional scope 3 emissions, outside a category's minimum boundary, towards the 67%: R2 says they cannot count.

Scope 3 targets are not given a temperature rating on the dashboard. The SBTi says the methods to assess scope 3 alignment “are not yet robust enough”, with an exception for automakers' use-of-sold-products emissions.

Not every organisation uses the corporate route. The SBTi has a tailored route for small and medium-sized enterprises, sector guidance for land-intensive businesses and separate standards for banks, insurers and investors.

SMEs. The SME validation route is open only to companies with under 10,000 tCO2e of scope 1 and location-based scope 2 emissions that also meet size and sector tests. SMEs skip the commitment stage, and their near-term targets cover scope 1 and 2 only, with a commitment to measure and reduce scope 3. Under the Service Offerings V6.1, a UK-registered SME pays £933 plus VAT for near-term validation with turnover under €5 million, and £1,493 above it.

FLAG. Companies in food production, food and beverage processing, food and staples retailing and tobacco must set Forest, Land and Agriculture targets. So must a company in any other sector whose FLAG emissions exceed 20% of its total emissions, according to the SBTi's FLAG page. A no-deforestation commitment is mandatory.

Financial institutions. The SBTi treats a company earning 5% or more of its revenue from financial activities as a financial institution. It launched its first Financial Institutions Net-Zero Standard in July 2025, alongside the older near-term criteria.

No. No UK law requires a company to set a science-based target or to have one validated. The SBTi describes itself as a voluntary initiative, and nothing in the UK's reporting regimes makes its standards binding.

SBTi targets still show up in UK reporting, through disclosure. The UK SRS S2 standard, published by the Department for Business and Trade in February 2026, requires an entity reporting under it to disclose the climate targets it has set. For each one it must say, under ¶34(a), “whether the target and the methodology for setting the target has been validated by a third party”. ¶33(b) lists “conformance with science-based initiatives” as an example of a target's objective.

That is a duty to describe targets you have, not to set one. The same logic applies to transition plans: UK SRS S2 asks about any plan the entity has, and no UK entity is currently under a legal duty to adopt one. Our climate transition plan guidetracks the government's unanswered 2025 consultation on that question.

Who has to report under UK SRS is itself still being settled. The UK Sustainability Reporting Standards page on GOV.UK explains the endorsed standards. The FCA consulted in CP26/5 on applying them to listed companies from 1 January 2027, and as at 28 September 2026 it has published no policy statement, so those rules are still proposals.

"Setting science-based targets is entirely voluntary, allowing companies to demonstrate leadership, manage risks, and capitalize on net-zero opportunities."Science Based Targets initiative, About us

A company with SBTi targets that reports under UK SRS S2 will already hold most of what ¶¶33–36 ask for. ¶33 covers every climate target the entity has set, ¶34 the approach to setting and reviewing it, ¶35 performance against it, and ¶36 the extra fields for a greenhouse gas target. The table maps each one to what the SBTi process produces.

Two differences need care. First, SBTi criterion C8 lets a company track its target on either a location-based or a market-based scope 2 figure, provided it uses one consistently. UK SRS S2 requires location-based scope 2 and makes market-based optional. A company tracking its SBTi target on market-based numbers still has to report location-based scope 2 under UK SRS, and should say which figure the target uses. Our scope 2 guide sets the two methods side by side.

Second, ¶33 reaches every climate target, not only SBTi ones. A company with an SBTi near-term target, a separate renewable electricity pledge and a net-zero ambition that has not been validated discloses all three, and ¶34(a) makes the difference visible: one was validated by a third party and the others were not. What good looks like is a single targets table in the report that carries the ¶33 and ¶36 fields as columns and uses the SBTi target wording verbatim.

For many UK suppliers, the first contact with net-zero targets is not the SBTi but a Carbon Reduction Plan under Procurement Policy Note 006. The two are often confused. They are different instruments with different scope.

The PPN 006 Technical Standardsets the plan's content. It asks suppliers to confirm a commitment to net zero by 2050 at the latest, to publish the latest plan on their UK website with a prominent link from the homepage, to review and update it annually, and to have it signed off by a director or equivalent. It does not mention the SBTi. An SBTi target is therefore a strong thing to put in a Carbon Reduction Plan, but the plan does not need one.

Mapped the other way, the SBTi inventory usually supplies everything the plan needs: scope 1 and 2 in full, and the five scope 3 categories (upstream and downstream transportation and distribution, waste, business travel and employee commuting) as a subset of the full scope 3 inventory. The common mistake is to let the two drift: a plan that states a 2030 cut different from the validated target, or a baseline year that differs from the SBTi base year. A validated SBTi target does not replace a Carbon Reduction Plan, and a plan is not an SBTi target. Our guide to carbon reduction plans under PPN 006 sets out the threshold and the five scope 3 categories.

Every SBTi target sits on a greenhouse gas inventory. The Near-Term Criteria require companies to follow the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, its Scope 2 Guidance and the Scope 3 Standard, and to cover all seven Kyoto gases. Accounting that cannot be shown to follow the GHG Protocol is not accepted.

That makes the inventory the real starting point. Our GHG Protocol guide covers boundaries and consolidation, and the scope 1, 2 and 3 explainer covers what falls where. The GHG Protocol is itself being revised; its revised standard is estimated for the fourth quarter of 2028.

Carbon credits cannot count as reductions against a near-term target. Criterion C11 limits them to neutralising residual emissions at net-zero, or to financing mitigation beyond the target. Avoided emissions also sit outside the inventory and do not count.

The practical order is inventory, then targets, then validation, and most of the time goes on data. SBTi Services answers questions during validation but does not provide consultancy, and the SBTi notes that many companies engage consultants for inventories and target modelling.

The SBTi is widely used and widely argued about. The main criticisms are set out here with their sources. This page takes no side on them.

The 2024 carbon credit dispute. On 9 April 2024 the SBTi Board of Trustees said it would extend the use of environmental attribute certificates, including carbon credits, for scope 3 abatement. Staff wrote to the board calling for the chief executive to step down and the decision to be reversed, Reuters reported. On 12 April the Board clarified that no change had been made to SBTi standards and that any change would follow its standard-setting procedure.

Governance and funding. The staff letter, as reported by ESG Dive, warned against decisions “unduly influenced by lobbyists, driven by potential conflicts of interest”. A related criticism is structural: validated companies pay the validator. SBTi Services describes itself as a distinct legal entity that operates independently from the standard-setter.

Ambition and delivery. Scope 3 targets need only be well-below 2°C, not 1.5°C. Validation under Version 1 assesses a target when it is submitted, and progress is then self-reported each year. One stated purpose of Version 2.0 is to integrate assessment of target achievement. The April 2026 method update drew its own debate: it lowers the minimum near-term cut for recent base years, which the SBTi says keeps the same net-zero ambition by spreading reductions over a longer period.

Credits in Version 2.0.V2.0 does not contain a sentence banning credits from counting toward targets. Its criterion C5.4 does it structurally, requiring companies, where applicable, to account for market instruments separately from the physical inventory. The SBTi describes high-integrity credits as “a complement and not a substitute” to cutting emissions, recognised through a voluntary programme. Critics and supporters read that balance differently.

Most SBTi mistakes in UK reports come from three places: treating a voluntary standard as law, reading a published standard as one in force, and counting credits where the criteria do not let them count. Test yourself on the six below.

The same standard lands differently depending on why you are looking at it. Pick the description that fits; each tab says what applies, what to do next and by when.

The timeline marks what has passed and what comes next as of the day you read it. The version dates are read from the corpus entries that cite the SBTi's own documents; the commitment and validation-resource dates are from Tables 1 and 4 of the SBTi Services transition guide.

SBTi Servicesvalidator

The SBTi’s wholly owned subsidiary that assesses and validates targets for a fee.

Near-term targetNTC C13

A reduction target covering 5 to 10 years from submission, with a base year no earlier than 2015.

Net-zero targetCNZS V1.3.1

Near-term targets plus a long-term target of 90% or more reduction by 2050 at the latest, with residual emissions neutralised.

Absolute Contraction Approachmethod

The cross-sector method that sets an absolute percentage cut from the base year; updated on 14 April 2026.

Linear annual reduction rateMethod Appendix

The percentage of base-year emissions cut each year; floored at 4.2% for scope 1 and 2.

Base yearNTC C13

The year against which the reduction is measured; scope 1 and 2 must share one.

Most recent yearNTC C14

The latest complete inventory; for 2026 submissions, 2024 or 2025.

Engagement targetNTC C19

A target for suppliers or customers to adopt science-based targets within five years of submission.

FLAGsector

Forest, Land and Agriculture emissions and removals, which some companies must target separately.

Neutralisationnet-zero

Removing residual emissions from the atmosphere with eligible carbon removals at the net-zero target year and after.

Target Dashboardpublic list

The SBTi’s weekly-updated list of companies with validated targets, commitments and removed commitments.