From ambition to action.

01 · A or B?

Which rules apply to you?

v2 sorts every company into Category A or Category B. Answer three quick questions, and every requirement on this page flips to yours.

02 · TIMELINE

One loop, repeated to 2050.

Published June 2026, effective February 2027 — and from there the same five-year cycle turns over and over until only residual emissions are left.

03 · GOVERNANCE

Net-zero starts in the boardroom.

Three commitments anchor the whole cycle: strong governance, a transition plan at validation, and carbon woven into your commercial strategy.

04 · BASELINE

Measure from where you are now.

v2 moves the base year to your latest data, asks for limited assurance, and makes you name the emissions that move the needle.

CNZS-C4 · At the start of every five-year cycle, you move your base year forward to the most recent year with comprehensive data. This continues your decarbonization; it doesn't restart it. You still show progress cycle over cycle, and you can keep reporting against an earlier reference year too.

05 · SCOPE 1

Scope 1: three routes to total coverage.

Your near-term scope 1 target has to reach every direct tonne you emit — 100% coverage. Three routes get you there; take one or combine several, and open any card for the detail.

Mix routes freely; set more than one and they roll up into a single scope 1 figure, used for communication only (C10.4).

06 · SCOPE 2

Scope 2: two ways to express the ambition.

Your near-term scope 2 target has to cover all of it — 100% of purchased electricity, heat, steam and cooling. For electricity buyers, v2 moves the question from whether an instrument exists to where you can credibly claim it.

TARGET OPTIONS · CNZS-C12

Pick how you express the target, then build the contract stack to match.

LCE-share alignment Absolute reduction

Low-carbon electricity (LCE) alignment target C12.2a

Raise the share of low-carbon electricity you use, contract, or match, climbing a linear path toward an eligible net-zero pathway. LCE now reaches past renewables: renewables, nuclear, and CCS-fitted generation all count. Take it long-term and it lands at 100% LCE (C13.2a).

Category A companies also submit projected electricity consumption at validation. If projected demand grows by more than 20% a year on average across the cycle (CAGR > 20% — e.g. 100 GWh in 2031 to 250 GWh in 2035 is a 20.11% CAGR), an emissions target becomes mandatory alongside or instead of the LCE target (C12.4).

Absolute emissions reduction target C12.2b

Drive scope 2 absolute emissions down a linear trajectory to a defined residual level, consistent with an eligible net-zero pathway. Long-term, it reaches residual levels by 2050 (C13.2b). A long-term target stays optional on this route — though Category A still files electricity demand projections at validation.

PROCUREMENT CLAIMS

EACs still count — what changes is the claim.

EACs, EECS Guarantees of Origin included, remain eligible instruments under SBTi v2. What shifts is the claim each one backs. An EAC can support a low-carbon electricity alignment or system-contribution claim — but never a physical emissions-reduction claim, unless your physical GHG inventory changes with it. Vintage counts too: the certificate has to come from a low-carbon electricity generator commissioned or repowered in the 15 years before the electricity-consumption period it matches.

Action	Strongest claim
Energy efficiency reducing electricity use	Physical emissions reduction
On-site solar consumed on site	Physical reduction and LCE alignment
Direct-line low-carbon electricity	Strong activity-level LCE alignment
Grid-connected PPA in relevant activity pool	LCE alignment / target implementation / possible system contribution
Unbundled EECS GO or EAC	LCE alignment / target implementation, if quality rules are met
Out-of-region certificates without deliverability evidence	Weak claim; likely not robust for SBTi v2

Claim warning: Never say buying EACs reduced your emissions unless a physical inventory change explicitly backs it. Reword the claim like this:

"We reduced emissions by buying EACs."

↓

"We matched X% of electricity consumption with eligible low-carbon electricity instruments."

"We reduced emissions by buying EACs."

↓

"We contributed to decarbonising the electricity system through eligible instruments."

Importing power does not automatically validate a neighbour's EACs.

Physical imports can move your location-based grid factors, true. But an import flow alone won't make a neighbouring-country EAC valid for the site consuming the power. For a procurement claim, the instrument still has to fit the relevant deliverability/activity-pool rules — or qualify under a specific flexibility.

German site + German GO

Generally clean.

German site + French PPA

Can hold, once the deliverability and activity-pool/PPA rules are met.

German site + Norwegian hydro GO

Norway exporting into Europe doesn't make it robust on its own.

German site + Brazilian EAC

Not robust for Scope 2 electricity consumed in Germany.

HOURLY MATCHING · CNZS-C32-C34

Hourly matching is a procurement metric, not an emissions calculation.

In SBTi v2, hourly matching isn't a pure location-based hourly emissions calculation. It's a procurement/attribute metric — the share of electricity consumption in significant activity pools that you use, contract, or match with low-carbon electricity, hour by hour.

Threshold: that 10 GWh test runs per activity pool, not across your global total.

Activity pool	Annual electricity use	Hourly matching reporting?
France	12 GWh	Yes
Italy	8 GWh	No, unless part of a larger relevant activity pool
Germany	50 GWh	Yes
Global total	70 GWh	Not the test by itself

Required · from 2027

Reporting the share is mandatory.

From v2's effective date of 1 February 2027, any activity pool drawing 10 GWh or more a year must calculate and report how much of its electricity it matches with low-carbon supply hour by hour (CNZS-C32). Reporting that number is not optional.

→

Optional · leadership

Clearing the thresholds is voluntary.

Meeting the 50 / 75 / 90% levels below is required of no one. It matters only if you want SBTi to recognise you as a leader on the Dashboard, under its optional Scope 2 Hourly Matching recognition program (CNZS-C33–C34).

Do you see yourself as a leader in your industry?

50%until 2030

75%until 2035

90%from 2035

Annual matching stays the core of target implementation. Hourly matching you must report for significant activity pools, and may pursue for leadership recognition.

Target timing: leave your 2030 targets alone and ready the next cycle instead.

Validated 2030 targets? Deliver them. The quiet, real work for energy procurement is getting the 2030-2035 cycle ready. Five moves:

1. Audit the contract stack. Map every PPA, vPPA, green tariff and EAC, then flag which ones still count past 2030.
2. Read the load curves. Pull hourly consumption for the sites physically drawing that power, and test how well today's instruments match it hour by hour.
3. Find the gap. Wherever hourly matching falls short marks the low-carbon supply you need to buy next.
4. Start sourcing early. Lock in deliverable, in-pool LCE before the next cycle — and your competitors — force your hand.
5. Bring in backup. Pull in a procurement advisory team (Arcadia or similar) to execute while the window is still open.

07 · SCOPE 3

Scope 3 stops being a coverage rule. It becomes a decision system.

v1 asked a single question — had you covered two-thirds of your value chain?
v2 asks two: which categories clear the 5% boundary, and which target option fits each.

1 · The 5% boundary, live

Any scope 3 category worth 5% or more of your categories 1–14 emissions falls inside your near-term target boundary (C14.1). Pick a company type to load a typical breakdown, then drag the threshold and watch categories cross the line. The shares are illustrative, drawn from what companies report to CDP.

2 · Pick the lever per category — Table 3

Choose a category to see which target-setting options open up for it (CNZS-C15, Table 3, p.40).

Table 1 · Target types at a glance

A net-zero target ties your near- and long-term targets across all three scopes together and neutralizes residuals in the target year — optional for everyone (C17).

08 · TARGET IMPLEMENTATION

Delivery is now a hierarchy.

v2 grades how you decarbonize, not just whether you do. Cut at source first. You earn every step down the ladder with a demonstrated structural constraint — never preference, procurement choice, or cost alone.

Whatever rung you act on, every instrument and project has to clear the integrity criteria — additionality, unique attribution, temporal alignment, and no double counting (CNZS-C25–C26).

09 · PROVE IT

Say only what you can show.

Track progress every year, face an end-of-cycle assessment, and split your public claims three ways — reduction, alignment, and system contribution, each kept distinct.

THREE CLAIM TYPES · CNZS-C37.10

What your End-of-Cycle Assessment shows sets what you can say in public. Three claim types, each with its own bar of evidence.

10 · ONGOING EMISSIONS RESPONSIBILITY

For companies that want to show the world they care about the impact they leave.

Three voluntary tiers — Engaged, Advanced, Leadership — reward companies that own the emissions they haven’t eliminated yet. Come 2035, the voluntary part ends.

TABLE 4 · CNZS-C40

Ongoing Emissions Responsibility (OER) asks you to answer for what you haven't eliminated — through finance or removals — in step with your ambition.

2035 AND BEYOND · CNZS-C45–C46

By 2050 your remaining emissions should sit at residual levels — for most sectors, no more than about 10% of your base-year footprint — and you neutralize 100% of those residuals every year with eligible carbon removals (C46). OER is the on-ramp between now and then: it grows the removals market and builds the internal muscle you'll need at the finish line.

11 · ABOUT ME · GET IN TOUCH

Built for you & me.

I built this site to help anyone interested in sustainability get to grips with this major standard upgrade. I hope you’ve found it more fun than reading 100 pages of technical guidance…