London, United Kingdom, 10th February 2025: The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) on 10^th February announced that it will seek additional stakeholder feedback on the revision of its Corporate Net-Zero Standard. This move is aimed to ensure the revised standard is effective, actionable, and ambitious. New Expert Working Groups and second public consultation will help businesses and other stakeholders with extensive opportunities to contribute to the revision process.

The establishment of these new mechanisms is important for the SBTi to gather more stakeholder input. These efforts build on previous engagement activities, including collaboration with the Technical Advisory Group and working sessions with key stakeholders such as businesses. The SBTi has planned to release a first draft of the revised Standard for consultation no earlier than March 2025 and will also conduct pilot testing.

The revision of the Corporate Net-Zero Standard aims to introduce clarity on critical areas. These include a new categorisation system tailored to company size and geography, enhancing progress and transparency in reporting, addressing value chain emissions (scope 3), improving the approach to neutralization of residual emissions, and ensuring interoperability with other SBTi standards and relevant frameworks.

The Expert Working Groups will bring together subject-matter experts from across business, civil society, and academia to provide in-depth input on key topics. These expert working groups will focus on five critical themes: scope 2 emissions from purchased or acquired electricity, scope 3 target-setting approaches, removals and carbon dioxide removal, ongoing emissions and beyond value chain mitigation (BVCM), and data quality, assurance and claims.

The SBTi plans to publish an initial draft of the Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2 for public consultation for a minimum of 60 days, expected to commence no earlier than March 2025. Feedback from the consultation and the Expert Working Groups will be used to refine the draft, which will then be published for pilot testing and a second public consultation.

Alberto Carillo Pineda, Chief Technical Officer of the SBTi, emphasised the progress made since the launch of the first Corporate Net-Zero Standard in 2021. In an official press release he said, "When we launched our first Corporate Net-Zero Standard in 2021, there was no consistent definition of net-zero in corporate climate target-setting. We have come a long way since then - today more than 1500 businesses have net-zero aligned targets. The feedback we have gathered since the release of the first version of the Standard has been invaluable in helping us identify opportunities to strengthen it and make it more practical and effective in driving science-based climate action."

Tracy Wyman, Chief Impact Officer of the SBTi, highlighted the importance of the additional consultations by stating, "Reaching net-zero is never going to be straightforward. But the guidance to get businesses there should be. The additional consultations announced today will support the development of a revised Corporate Net-Zero Standard that works for businesses and accelerates climate action. We encourage all interested stakeholders to engage with the revision process through these feedback mechanisms and welcome their input to shape the revised Corporate Net-Zero Standard."

The SBTi has released an updated Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2 Project Terms of Reference to incorporate the new feedback mechanisms. The revision process is being conducted in line with the SBTi Standard Operating Procedure for Development of Standards.