The New Corporate Net-Zero Standard Version 2.0

June 15, 2026

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(Science Based Targets initiative) The SBTi’s new flagship Standard has arrived, marking the next phase of the net-zero transition—from ambition to real-world implementation. Explore the updated Standard and register your interest to learn more about the Corporate Net-Zero Standard.

The Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0 is the SBTi’s most comprehensive framework for corporate climate action to date, with an expanded toolkit for setting and implementing targets. It makes credible, science-based climate action practical, accessible, and relevant for companies at every stage of the net-zero journey.

Ready to dive in? Check out three key resources:

What’s new in Version 2.0 (key elements)

The updated Standard introduces comprehensive updates across six key areas—strengthening alignment with the latest climate science and evolving best practice:

Differentiated approaches across markets: The Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0 includes accommodations for small and medium-sized enterprises, and companies in lower-income countries.
Set actionable, context-specific targets: Companies set targets that reflect their opportunities to reduce emissions in different contexts, including capital stock, supply/ value chains, sectors, and geographies. It also strengthens the link to transition planning. Companies set two or more near-term targets and can choose to set an overarching net-zero target.
Act transparently on a best-efforts basis: Targets are pursued on a best-efforts basis, with transparency over key assumptions and dependencies. Companies are expected to use all available levers to reduce emissions, address any implementation barriers and transparently report on them.
Mobilize all available levers to deliver emissions reductions: The Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0 introduces an implementation hierarchy that prioritizes actions, from those directly reducing emissions in company operations and value chains to broader activity pool and sector-level actions where appropriate. These may be supported by market instruments such as energy attributes and commodity certificates based on different chain-of-custody models (e.g., mass balance, book-and-claim), subject to guardrails.
Continuously assess, disclose, and strengthen progress: A process of annual reporting and periodic assessment of progress, barriers to implementation, and actions to address these; and for setting new targets before or at the end of a cycle – including where there are gaps between emissions and targets – to ensure ongoing alignment with netzero pathways. Through this continuous improvement process, companies can continue progressing within the SBTi framework toward net-zero.
Maintain ongoing emissions responsibility: The Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0 takes a balanced approach to the use of high-integrity carbon credits and other climate contributions as a complement and not a substitute to companies reducing their carbon footprint, through a voluntary recognition program.

“Natura's experience in the Corporate Net-Zero Standard 2.0 pilot program reinforces our conviction that the evolution of this standard is fundamental to the success of global climate goals. We support this new milestone as it becomes more connected to current challenges and corporate reality, ensuring that the transition to net zero is as ambitious as it is pragmatic and aligned with the urgency of our time.”
João Teixeria, Climate and Nature Manager, Natura READ MORE

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Excerpt from Watershed: The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) has released the final version of its Corporate Net Zero Standard version 2, representing a significant shift in how corporate climate ambition is measured and recognized. Over 11,000 companies and financial institutions have adopted Science Based Targets since SBTi was founded in 2015.

The new standard differs significantly from prior drafts. It opens more flexible pathways for target creation, separates scope 1 and 2 target ambition, and clarifies reporting and assurance requirements. The standard also recognizes “best efforts,” meaning companies that do not meet their targets while demonstrating good faith action can continue along the net zero trajectory.

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Timing

Companies can continue using version 1.3.1 (and near-term criteria v5.3.1) until January 31, 2028. After that date, all new targets must use version 2. Companies can voluntarily choose to set targets against the new standard starting in February 2027 through SBTi’s online validation portal.

Companies that have not yet set an SBTi commitment can continue to do so and validate to the existing standard until January 31, 2027; all companies committing to SBTi after that date will need to validate their targets to version 2.

Companies with existing targets should check their mandatory five year review trigger date to determine when they will need to set new targets under version 2. Existing near-term targets will remain valid until the end of their target timeframe, or the mandatory five year review timeframe, whichever is sooner.

Key changes in detail

The final version of the updated standard differs from the latest draft version—released in November 2025—in meaningful ways. Here’s what’s changed:

New tiered requirements based on company size: The standard introduces the concept of “Category A” and “Category B” companies based on their size and geography, with different ambition levels required for each tier.

Inventory and base year: Companies must base their targets on the most recent year of emissions using their physical, rather than market-based, inventory.

Companies will be able to use market-based instruments to demonstrate target progress, with alignment and system contribution claims serving as eligible markers of target progress along with emissions reduction claims.
Larger companies must include all major scope 3 categories representing more than 5% of their total scope 3 emissions in targets. It is now recommended, rather than required, that companies set long-term targets.

Target ambition: Companies must now disclose separate scope 1, 2, and 3 targets, with optional subtargets for scope 3 categories.

Scope 1: A new asset transition target has been added, to allow asset-specific reduction plans for companies with long term decarbonization ambition for physical assets. Companies can set absolute contraction, sector-specific intensity, or asset transition targets for scope 1.
Scope 2: Companies can set absolute contraction or low carbon electricity alignment targets, committing to a threshold of 0.048 kgCO2e/kWh. Large electricity users will need to report hourly matching performance; and companies with more than 20% annual increases in electricity consumption must set absolute emissions reduction, rather than low carbon electricity alignment targets.
Scope 3: Companies can set absolute emissions reduction, intensity reduction, supplier/customer alignment, volume alignment, and product alignment targets. Specific pathways have been defined for upstream and downstream categories and exclusions have been identified for low impact activities, and activities where companies have little influence. Companies may elect to (but are not required to) set targets for emissions-intensive activities in their scope 3.

Reporting: Companies will be required to report their Scope 1+2 footprints on an annual basis, with a five year end of cycle reporting process, including a complete Scope 1-3 footprint, to SBTi.

Ongoing emissions: The revised draft brings together Beyond Value Chain Mitigation (BVCM), carbon removals, and neutralization under one integrated framework that defines how companies take responsibility for emissions that persist on the path to net zero. It introduces a tiered recognition system for companies addressing their emissions through verified mitigation measures:

Engaged: 1% of scope 1-3 emissions
Advanced: 100% of scope 1-2 and 10% of scope 3 emissions
Leadership: 100% of scope 1-3 for Category A companies and 10% for Category B

Category A companies will be required to neutralize 1% of their scope 1-3 footprint by 2035, increasing to 100% by their net zero target year.

Interaction with broader standards updates

This standard was released as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP) is underway with significant updates to GHG accounting standards, including the Corporate Standard, Scope 2 Standard, Scope 3 Standard, Actions and Market Instruments Standard, and Product Standard. SBTi has committed to aligning with GHGP as those updates are finalized.

What should companies do now?

Companies with SBTi-validated targets: READ MORE

Excerpt from Wall Street Journal: The Science Based Targets initiative said it has made “an explicit choice to recognize that companies do not control everything, and that pretending otherwise does not serve anyone,” in its long-awaited update to its corporate net-zero rulebook.

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Up until now, the SBTi has said companies should focus on decarbonization within their own supply chain—by using renewable electricity on site to power their operations, for example. Market-based mitigation efforts, such as the purchase of sustainable-aviation-fuel credits to offset emissions, are actions outside the supply chain of a company. Such efforts weren’t previously allowed to be counted in calculations toward reaching SBTi-approved climate targets. Now, such methods can be considered core to a company’s net-zero strategy.

Companies also will be allowed to use carbon-removal technologies, which could include direct air capture or reforestation credits, to help achieve carbon neutrality when faced with emissions that are impossible or nearly impossible to eliminate. This rule will only come into effect from 2035 to cover the last remaining emissions after all other steps have been taken.

SBTi’s chief executive, David Kennedy, said the new standard remains science-based but can work with a company’s overarching goals and be implemented as part of strategy. “It reflects opportunities and challenges that companies have, and it’s got a focus on implementation and it reframes the corporate transition as a continuous improvement journey,” he said.

Kennedy said physical decarbonization remains the key focus, and companies should do everything in their power to lower emissions.

“If you take a holistic view, [the new standard] offers the opportunity for companies to manage their transition risk and, at the same time, contribute to international climate objectives,” he said.

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The SBTi said it will continue to allow companies to report their emissions from power use annually for target-setting, instead of in real time throughout the year, an approach some environmental groups, academics and companies have pushed for.

Proponents of hourly matching—where electrical emissions are calculated at the source on an hourly basis—say that such emissions reporting would be more accurate and better drive decarbonization.

The SBTi said that using hourly matching “is generally preferable to annual matching, as it can support more effective price signals for load shifting and investment in low-carbon generation and storage, and better align electricity demand with low-carbon supply.”

Despite this, the nonprofit isn’t seeking to adopt the policy within target-setting. Instead, companies with significant electricity use—for example, tech companies—will have to report the share of electricity consumption matched with low-carbon electricity on an hourly basis in a bid to improve transparency.

Kennedy said the academic literature on hourly matching remains at an early stage and isn’t definitive enough to show the model’s impact. READ MORE