The Science Based Targets initiative has released a 2026-2030 strategy, positioning themselves as a transition partner. This is in response to the consistent message from committed businesses that there is a lack of guidance and clearly defined pathways to put targets into action. The changes will work to back up the credibility of SBTi certification by providing actionable data to demonstrate what has worked for companies across the SBTi network, and various collaboration opportunities including peer-learning, corporate collaboration and government engagement.
What are the Main Changes?
There are four main shifts highlighted by the SBTi as part of the new strategy.
- Action Focused Standard: The SBTi plans to develop tailored approaches aligned to sector, geography and level of influence and to ensure all frameworks are interoperable.
- Focusing on Implementation: The strategy will include a stronger emphasis on data transparency and provide companies with an assessment of progresses and challenges across the system, insight into how they compare to peers, and information where best to focus action.
- Addressing Fragmentation: The SBTi is working to strengthen partnerships among climate action organisations to ensure approaches are comparable and avoid duplication of work for sustainability teams.
- Expanding Coverage: The updates will provide increased guidance for high emitting sectors and develop a targeted presence in high emitting regions.
How will the Changes be Implemented?
In order to implement these, the new model works based on two dimensions, ambition to action and maximising impact.
Ambition to action works to translate the scientific information and targets provided so far to commercial contexts into a focus on implementation. Action-aligned standards and frameworks are to be developed to provide companies options for decarbonisation; requirements will be made to be interoperable with other standards to reduce reporting burdens; and information will be provided regarding emissions and investments for full transparency and to enable use in assessing progress made and best actions for further progress.
Maximising Impact aims to strengthen partnerships and expand the SBTi network. This works to ensure consistency across carbon reporting frameworks and ensure all organisations have a clear role. The SBTi plans to continue to focus its strengths on โsetting and delivering science-based ambitionโ and will recognise where other organisations have complementary strengths for partnership. This dimension also looks at diversification to further target high emitting sectors and regions.
This includes sector-based approaches and deeper engagement in the financial sectors, as well as opening offices in India and Southeast Asia to support the growth of SBTi target setting in the region and begin to develop a presence in Africa through partnerships and capacity building.
Are There Changes to Target Setting?
As well as the updated strategy, earlier this month the SBTi released updates to their Absolute Contraction Approach (ACA) for near term target setting in order to make target setting more accessible for organisations in the second half of the decade.
Previously, organisations were required to reduce emissions by 42% by 2030 as required to meet the Paris Agreement, regardless of when the target was set during the decade. This led to increasingly steep, and subsequently less attainable, annual emission reduction requirements. The new targets, which the SBTi continue to state are aligned with the Paris Agreement, require a 4.2% annual reduction which aligns with the reduction rate of companies that set the 42% reduction target in 2020.
This means, unless companies setting science-based targets have already made progress before aligning with the SBTi, companies setting targets in 2026 (based on 2025 emissions) will only see a 21% reduction by the end of the decade. Any organisation which set targets based on the old methodology must keep the targets already set, however companies looking to set targets in 2026 or 2027 can benefit from the reduced target requirements.
How can NUS Help?
NUSโ Sustainability team provide a range of services to support with SBTi alignment, including carbon footprint calculations, SBTi aligned target setting and bespoke decarbonisation strategies designed to support organisations with reaching their targets. For more information contact us online or find your local NUS office.