SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2: what changes and when

V2 is published but targets are not yet validated against it. Both versions coexist through 2027, and that overlap is what shapes what to do this year.

11 June 2026

SBTi publishes version 2.0. Available to read and plan against, not yet to submit targets under.

1 February 2027

V2 takes effect.

31 December 2027

The window to submit targets under version 1 closes. After that, everything is V2.

2028

Companies with 2030 targets begin setting the 2030–2035 cycle under V2.

2035

Ongoing emissions responsibility becomes mandatory for Category A companies.

V2 replaces the old corporate-versus-SME split with two categories determined by size and by the country where the ultimate parent is incorporated.

A company is Category A if, in any country, it turns over €450 million or more, or employs 1,000 full-time equivalents or more. In high-income countries the bar drops considerably: 10,000 tonnes of CO₂e across scopes 1 and 2 is enough, or meeting two of three lower thresholds — a €25 million balance sheet, €50 million turnover, or 250 employees. Anything below that is Category B.

The decisive detail is that geography follows World Bank income groups. Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia are upper-middle income, not high income, so the second and stricter row of thresholds does not apply to them. A mid-sized Argentine company lands in Category B even with substantial emissions.

Category B carries noticeably lighter requirements:

• A scope 3 target is optional rather than required.
• The mandatory inventory covers scopes 1 and 2; scope 3 is recommended.
• No third-party assurance of the target base year is required.
• A transition plan is still required, but publishing it is not.
• Identifying emissions-intensive activities is optional.

V1 allowed 5- or 10-year targets against a historical base year. V2 fixes five-year cycles and, more importantly, changes where the base year comes from: no longer a frozen historical year, but the most recent year with complete data, reselected each cycle.

The reasoning is that ambition should be calculated against the current emissions profile rather than one from a decade ago. In practice it tightens targets: the later you start, the fewer years remain to 2050 and the steeper the required annual reduction.

Companies may still communicate targets against an earlier reference year, provided the equivalent ambition has been reviewed during validation.

Combined scope 1 and 2 targets are gone. Category A companies set separate targets for all three scopes; Category B companies for scopes 1 and 2.

Scope 1

Three options: linear absolute reduction, intensity reduction along a sector pathway, or asset transition with replacement milestones. The latter two also require a long-term target.

Scope 2

Two options: absolute reduction, or a low-carbon electricity alignment target that raises the share of consumption covered by renewable, nuclear or carbon-captured generation. Reporting total electricity consumption and that share becomes mandatory.

Scope 3

Targets cover categories representing 5% or more of scope 3. A closed list of exclusions is allowed — employee commuting entirely, and leased assets or downstream transport where there is no real influence — but each exclusion must be declared, quantified and accompanied by a mitigation plan.

This is V2's newest concept and the one that takes the most data work. Beyond the category breakdown, companies identify which activities from a closed list exist in their value chain and quantify their emissions. The list has three groups: commodities on a cradle-to-gate basis, transport well-to-wheel, and sold products in their use phase.

An activity is significant once it reaches 5% of scope 3, regardless of how many categories it is spread across — they can be aggregated. And one rule is worth reading twice: a company cannot assume an activity is absent without having carried out the analysis.

For agriculture this is direct. Forest, land and agriculture commodities are one of the listed activities: cattle, chicken, cocoa, coffee, dairy, leather, palm, pork, rubber, maize, rice, wheat, soy and timber. One clarification that often trips people up: citrus is not on that list. A citrus producer has land emissions and therefore a FLAG target, but oranges themselves do not count as an emissions-intensive activity.

• Work out which category the company falls into. It determines almost everything else and takes four pieces of corporate data.
• If you are close to submitting targets, do it under version 1 before the window closes: that is what is validated today and it buys five years of runway.
• Start measuring total electricity consumption and what share is low-carbon. It is a mandatory V2 metric and usually sits on the invoices already.
• Revisit scope 3 against the 5% threshold, not the 40% one.
• Write down the transition plan. V2 requires one from every company, with actions, timelines, assumptions and dependencies.