Researchers input interdisciplinary insights into SBTi’s proposed update to Net Zero Standard

The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) is the largest validator of corporate net zero targets, representing nearly 40% of the global economy by market capitalisation, through assessment against its Net Zero Standard. 

Standards with robust criteria are an important tool in increasing the ambition and integrity of net zero action by providing best practice guidance on how to set targets and implement sector-appropriate strategies. It is important for future governance of corporate net zero action that standards, when revised, are done so with the input of relevant experts and are towards higher (rather than lower) integrity and ambition. 

However, despite guidance from SBTi and other net zero standards, Scope 3 emissions’ measurement and action is often positioned as presenting a major issue for companies trying to set and meet climate goals (see SBTi’s recent survey in which 53.6% of companies cited “Scope 3 is too much of a challenge”). 

To date, corporate actors have been the main stakeholders involved in creating and revising net-zero standards, often leaving academic voices missing from the table when evidence is presented and options to sculpt net-zero futures are evaluated. Significantly, the challenges of Scope 3 have historically been poorly disaggregated into technical, governance and financial hurdles, and organisations setting net-zero targets need appropriate solutions to match those challenges. It is important for future governance of corporate net zero action that standards, when revised, are done so with the input of relevant experts and are towards higher (rather than lower) integrity and ambition. 

Proposed updates to SBTi’s Net Zero Standard made by the Board in April 2024 attracted much attention and alarm from experts and members of the SBTi’s Technical Advisory Group alike, due to both the process of the decision and the proposed change itself, which would allow businesses to use Environmental Attribute Credits for abatement of Scope 3 emissions beyond previous limits.

In an effort to bring together the academic perspective on Scope 3, and with the catalyst of the developments around the proposed updates to SBTi’s Corporate Net Zero Standard, Oxford Net Zero and the Grantham Institute at Imperial College, London held four workshops to facilitate conversations amongst researchers. Participants had expertise in (inter alia) carbon accounting, supply-chain decarbonisation, voluntary carbon markets, sectoral decarbonisation, climate policy, governance and justice, and decarbonisation pathways. 

The aim of the convenings was to present a menu of interventions that could improve the effectiveness and workability of Scope 3-focussed emissions reduction. The workshops also identified key pinch points that undermine or stymie the effectiveness and opportunities for corporate action.  

These workshops were generously supported by the Agile Initiative at the Oxford Martin School, who helped us bring together relevant academics in Oxford.  

Image source: Scope 3 Standard, page 5.