New Standard Operating Procedures to deliver agility while reinforcing governance

The SBTi wants science-based targets to drive the global economy to net-zero. To achieve this, stakeholders need to trust that our technical resources are scientifically robust and developed in the public interest. They also need those resources to evolve as science, regulation, and operating realities change, while giving companies the stability to plan ahead. 

That is the balance the SBTi’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are built to strike. The SBTi has published an updated SOP for the development of SBTi Standards V2, alongside a new SOP for the Development and Revision of SBTi Methods, Metrics and Pathways and Recognition of Pathways, both of which take effect immediately.

What’s new

Standard Operating Procedures underpin all the SBTi’s technical development and are designed to ensure rigorous processes, scientific integrity and stakeholder input to optimize the products that thousands of companies rely on for decarbonization in line with science. They set out the processes the SBTi has to follow when creating technical products. The new SOPs reinforce the SBTi’s existing and well-established governance procedures with additions including:

• Flexibility to maintain alignment across the eco-system while maintaining rigor. As related standards, guidance and regulation evolve, the SOPs provide defined routes to maintain coherence that companies need, without compromising our scientific rigor.
• Clearer processes for maintaining standards: Defined approaches for limited revisions, interpretations and urgent measures, including during the implementation phase, with corresponding consultation and approval requirements.
• Greater emphasis on consultation and pilot testing: Enhanced focus and tailored approaches to consultation, including specific requirements for different urgent measures–such as suspensions, group exceptions and interpretations. Plus, more opportunities to test technical resources with companies to assess their practical application in real-world business contexts.
• Further alignment with the ISEAL Code: Strengthened alignment with recognized good practices for standard-setting.
• Greater clarity on claims: A requirement for each Standard to outline the claims companies can make following validation.
• Introduction of Sector Specifications: New resources that establish sector-specific requirements as an extension of the Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0. Sector Specifications will be developed for sectors where there is alignment with the stated intentions in the Standard, but that require special criteria for specific sectors.
• Recognition of third-party pathways: A new process for recognizing pathways developed by third parties, scheduled for implementation in 2027.
• Explicit governing principles: Guiding principles underpinning the SBTi’s work (see below).
• Clearer delineation of roles and responsibilities: More clarity on how technical decisions are made, the roles of the Board, Technical Council and SBTi staff, and when stakeholders must be consulted. 

Most importantly, the Technical Council’s role is unchanged. It is the independent deliberation and technical decision-making body, with delegated authority from the Board, to review and approve SBTi standards and other technical resources. Technical Council members are appointed to act exclusively in the public interest.

The stated principles underpinning our work

The SOPs also outline six principles that now guide SBTi’s technical developments: 

• Integrity and impartiality. Rigorous, legitimate and independent decisions, with safeguards against conflicts of interest. 
• Proportionality. Processes that reflect the complexity, risk and impact of each decision, and who it affects. 
• Timeliness. Predictability for companies and other users of SBTi resources over short and medium term. 
• Stability. Predictability for companies and other users of SBTi resources over the short and medium term.
• Transparency. Open, inclusive processes, with clarity on how feedback is considered. 
• Continual improvement. Decisions informed by scientific evidence, stakeholder feedback and operational experience. 

Two Standard Operating Procedures, one goal 

The SBTi's Board of Trustees approved the SBT's first SOP in December 2023. It is now joined by a dedicated Standard Operating Procedure for Methods, Metrics and Pathways. We have introduced this new SOP so that each type of technical resource is developed and approved through a process suited to its purpose:

• SOP for the Development of SBTi Standards V2 (SOP for SBTi Standards V2) governs how SBTi standards are developed and revised. These are the requirements that determine what companies need to do to set targets and have them validated. 
• SOP for the Development and Revision of SBTi Methods, Metrics and Pathways and Recognition of Pathways (SOP for MMPs) governs the technical approaches, progress metrics and climate-aligned trajectories that sit behind those requirements.

Put simply, the Standard sets the requirements, and the Methods, Metrics and Pathways provide the technical basis for target setting. The two are aligned, to ensure that companies’ targets are both scientifically robust and can be applied consistently in practice. 

What are Methods, Metrics and Pathways?

Methods, Metrics and Pathways are the technical foundations of SBTi target-setting. They show how the ambition of targets is calculated - they are the underlying formulas for target setting.

Methods: How should a company set its targets? Methods are the technical approaches and calculations used to set science-based targets, and some are specific to a sector or type of emissions. They use a Metric and a Pathway to translate climate science into relevant targets. The linear contraction method and the sectoral decarbonization approach are two examples.

Metrics: What should be measured? Metrics are the indicators used to quantify emissions, performance or progress towards a target. Examples include absolute greenhouse gas emissions in tonnes of CO2 equivalent or emissions intensity per tonne of production.

Pathways: How much, and how quickly, does it need to change? Pathways are science-based trajectories showing how emissions or other metrics need to change over time to align with climate goals. Pathways are based on scenarios that make assumptions like continued economic growth, ongoing technological development, political stability and so on. They provide the reference point from which a target’s ambition is calculated.

In addition to SBTi’s own pathways, we will soon start to recognize third party pathways. We will release the eligibility criteria for this in the future.

Built on what stakeholders told us 

These newly released SOPs respond to stakeholder feedback and learning gathered since the publication of the SOP for SBTi Standards V1. The revision of the Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2 in particular showed the need for more agility to fix, improve or clarify the implementation of criteria, and to create new ones as science, operating realities and aligned frameworks evolve.

The changes also support the SBTi’s 2026-2030 Strategy, which marks a shift from ambition to implementation. Our aim is to be more responsive to what companies need, while maintaining the rigor that stakeholders expect of the SBTi. 

Help shape what comes next 

Insights from stakeholders are central to developing standards that are scientifically robust and practical to implement. In the coming months, the SBTi will launch a series of public comment periods that align with the new SOPs. Be sure to check our website and join our mailing list to hear about upcoming consultations, calls for evidence, and pilot tests. Together, we can drive ambitious corporate climate action in line with science.