Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2 Second Public Consultation
Explore the second draft of the Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2 with our digital consultation guide.
Explore the draft standard
- 01 Getting started
- 02 Take part in the public consultation
- 03 Key elements at a glance
- 04 Key resources
- 05 Draft Standard Chapter 1: Net-Zero Ambition
- 06 Draft Standard Chapter 2: Base Year Assessment
- 07 Draft Standard Chapter 3: Target Setting
- 08 Draft Standard Chapter 4: Taking Responsibility for Ongoing Emissions
- 09 Draft Standard Chapter 5: Assessing Performance and Renewing Targets
- 10 Draft Standard Chapter 6: SBTi Claims
- 11 Frequently asked questions
Key elements at a glance
WATCH: The SBTi’s CEO, David Kennedy, Chief Technical Officer, Alberto Carrillo Pineda and Head of Corporate Standards, Emma Watson, provide an overview of the updated draft Standard:
The emerging Standard is more practical and accessible, with a clearer, more streamlined structure to improve usability and make it easier to understand and apply.
It puts renewed emphasis on the next five years as a pivotal period to accelerate decarbonization, and enable a global net-zero transition by 2050, at the latest.
Reaching net-zero is never going to be straightforward. But the guidance to get businesses there should be. We’ve listened to hundreds of businesses and experts across the ecosystem, and are addressing their feedback through three overarching themes:
1. Reinforced ambition
The updated draft Standard requires company-backed ambition to work towards net-zero and clear internal accountability, and provides a strong link with transition planning and transparency over dependencies.
2. Enhanced clarity on purpose and scope
We have updated the cross-sector net-zero framework to align with the latest science and best practice, while enabling a clean interface with SBTi Sector-Specific and Financial Institution Standards, as well as other external frameworks, standards, and regulations—driving interoperability and alignment.
3. Cyclical validation system
The three stage process (Entry Check → Initial Validation → Renewal Validation) introduced in the initial consultation has been maintained, with optional spot checks to drive continuous improvement and accountability across target cycles.
These overarching themes are supported by specific technical updates in five key areas:
1. Performance and transparency
Companies want to understand how to credibly determine performance against their targets and the process to update them over time. Investors and civil society also want to understand how to assess progress towards net-zero. The draft Standard provides an end-to-end cycle that incentivizes ambition and recognizes progress achieved at the end of the target cycle. It introduces optional spot checks to drive continuous improvement and accountability, ensuring companies remain aligned with their net-zero ambition.
This approach builds on other parts of the wider climate action architecture, including existing disclosure platforms. The draft Standard also brings greater consideration to the needs and challenges of smaller companies and those in emerging markets to set targets fairly—for example, recognizing where there is a limited choice of energy providers when companies operate in markets with state energy companies.
2. Diversified scope 1 target-setting methods
Addressing direct operational emissions remains a key decarbonization challenge for the coming decade. The revised Standard introduces dedicated scope 1 target-setting requirements and more granular pathways, enabling companies to use metrics and benchmarks that better reflect their activities and priority emission sources.
Building on consultation feedback and further research, the second draft Standard includes three approaches for setting scope 1 ambition: reducing emissions on a linear pathway to net-zero; increasing the share of low-carbon activities over time; and implementing Asset Decarbonization Plans to decarbonize assets based on technological readiness, while maintaining science-based ambition.
3. Tightened integrity for low-carbon electricity (scope 2)
Companies are seeking greater clarity on expectations around scope 2 (electricity, heat, steam, and cooling) targets and low-carbon electricity purchasing. The draft Standard sets clear criteria for scope 2 decarbonization, including the use of credible contractual instruments and geographic and temporal matching, implemented through a phased approach that begins with the very largest electricity consumers. These updates aim to align with forthcoming GHG Protocol revisions, helping companies manage actual emissions exposure and transition risks, while supporting credible claims.
4. Focused and practical scope 3 framework
Our research has shown that addressing value chain emissions continues to be one of the biggest barriers to setting science-based targets due to varying levels of access to high quality data and limited influence over some emissions’ categories.
Building on the Scope 3 Discussion Paper, published in July 2024, and informed by extensive feedback and further research, the draft Standard refines the target-setting approach to address priority emissions, and introduces three options for setting targets—emissions intensity, activity alignment, and counterparty alignment—to reflect varying data quality and the different mitigation strategies companies use across their value chains. It refocuses target setting on the highest-priority value chain emission sources, allowing exclusions for lower-impact activities and areas where influence is limited, and includes action-based targets that consider value chain complexity and data maturity.
This approach incentivizes continuous improvements and impact over time, and considers a wider set of metrics, methods and tools to help companies report progress, and manage emissions in their value chain in a more practical, credible, and scalable way.
5. Progressive responsibility for ongoing emissions
The current Corporate Net-Zero Standard calls on companies to prioritize direct decarbonization of their value chains and neutralize the residual emissions that remain at the end of this process. This area was still nascent when the first Standard was developed. With new research and evidence now available, we can better tackle this topic.
While the focus remains on ensuring companies prioritize the direct decarbonization of their operations and value chains—following feedback from the first consultation, coupled with research—the draft Standard introduces a new recognition mechanism to incentivize companies taking early, voluntary action to address the impact of their ongoing emissions.
We recognize that removals capacity must be scaled to help companies to address their residual emissions, and use this tool effectively. To support this, from 2035 onwards, the draft Standard requires all large and medium-sized companies in high-income countries to address part of their ongoing emissions with removals, ensuring that an increasing proportion of these removals deliver long-lived carbon storage. This share is designed to increase progressively, so that by the time companies reach their net-zero target, corresponding removal capacity has been developed to address residual emissions.
