The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), one of the key organizations focused on aligning corporate environmental sustainability action with the global goals of limiting climate change, announced a series of actions as part of its “major scale-up operation,” including plans to develop sector standards for climate goals for several high impact sectors.

The organization said that its scale-up process is aimed at meeting surging demand for corporate decarbonization standards and target validation services, with the SBTi revealing that the number of companies with validated science-based climate targets has doubled over the past year, reaching 4,204 at the end of 2023, compared to 2,079 in 2022.

Founded in 2015, SBTi was formed as a collaboration between CDP, World Resources Institute (WRI), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), with the goal to establish science-based environmental target setting as a standard corporate practice. The organizations’ key functions include defining and promoting best practice in emissions reductions and net-zero targets in line with climate science, providing technical assistance to companies who set science-based targets, and providing companies with independent assessment and validation of their emissions reduction targets.

In September 2023, the SBTi announced the separation of its standard-setting and validation activities into distinct entities, as well as a series of governance changes, including incorporating the organization in the UK and establishing itself as independent from its founding organizations, along with plans to increase its target validation capacity in order to meet significant demand growth.

The organization said that it has now incorporated a subsidiary to house its target validation services, and that the SBTi has been granted charitable status in the UK, enabling it to receive a pledged $18 million of funding from the IKEA Foundation, matching funds pledged and received from its other principal funder, the Bezos Earth Fund.

Going forward, the SBTi said that it is prioritizing the development of sector-specific standards for high impact sectors including oil and gas, electric utilities, automotives, chemicals, insurance and apparel, and that it will pilot a hybrid model, partnering with external organizations, for the development of sector-specific standards, noting the potential to accelerate the number of sectors with developed standards from 2025.

The SBTi also said that it will review its corporate net zero standard this year for potential updates in 2025, and develop a Financial Institutions Net Zero Standard as well.

Luiz Amaral, CEO of the SBTi, said:

“We would like to extend our gratitude to IKEA Foundation, the Bezos Earth Fund and all our funders for their valuable contribution, supporting the SBTi in pursuit of its mission and the build out and scale up of our organization. We promised to prepare the SBTi for the next phase of growth and are delivering on that, once again doubling the number of companies validated in a single year while establishing our independence and strengthening our governance.”