SBTi

An initiative that assesses whether a company's emissions targets are consistent with the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement.

SBTi provides criteria and a validation service: a company submits targets, and they are assessed against sector pathways rather than against ambition in the abstract.

The value is comparability. “We will cut emissions 30%” means little without a baseline year, a boundary, and a trajectory; a validated target has all three.

It rests entirely on the inventory underneath. A target validated against a Scope 3 figure that was estimated from spend inherits that weakness, however rigorous the validation of the target itself.

Scope 3 All other indirect emissions across the value chain — purchased goods, transport, use of sold products, end of life.
GHG Protocol The most widely used standard for corporate greenhouse gas accounting; the origin of Scope 1, 2 and 3.