The Science-based Targets Initiative (SBTi) Guide

Science-based Targets initiative (SBTi) is an organization that validates corporate emissions reductions targets in line with the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5°C. SBTi was created in 2015 as a partnership among the United Nations, WWF, World Resources Institute, and CDP, its closely affiliated carbon disclosure and reporting hub. The backing of the science comes from aligning target criteria with “limiting global warming to well-below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C”. However, SBTi is rapidly phasing out the well-below 2°C option and from 2023 and onward, only validates targets that align with the 1.5°C pathway.

Target validations from SBTi cover only private corporations. Cities, non-profits, public, and governing bodies, are excluded as well as oil and gas companies – as of today.

SBTi’s popularity is growing exponentially, doubling the number of companies with committed and approved targets every year since 2018. And in the unlikely case you still can’t relate SBTi targets to something you know, ground it on this. When you recall a company’s net-zero target, it is most likely an SBTi-approved target.

Important to know: SBTi is solely responsible for validating emissions reductions targets that companies themselves set.

While SBTi liberally tracks the progress of companies against those targets and strongly recommends a linear reduction trajectory year-after-year, SBTi does not sanction companies that do not perform according to their recommendations. The mandatory follow-up is that a company must revalidate SBTi targets every 5 years.