Dive Brief:
- The International Organization for Standardization’s draft standard for companies to develop net-zero transition plans did not advance past a vote of global standard-setting bodies and now heads back to the organization for changes, an ISO spokesperson confirmed to ESG Dive Wednesday.
- ISO does not disclose ballot information, individual votes or reasoning behind votes externally, but the spokesperson said in a statement Thursday that the draft “did not receive the level of approval required to advance in its current form.” Trellis first reported the vote outcome Wednesday.
- ISO debuted the ISO/DIS 14060 standard in June, which kicked off a 12-week public consultation period for national standard-setting bodies globally. The global standard-setter’s membership consists of 177 national standards bodies, with one per country.
Dive Insight:
ISO first began working on its net-zero standard in 2022 and convened the largest international working group in the organization’s history to develop the public consultation draft. The standard is designed to guide companies through the process of setting transition plans and provide best practices for net-zero strategies, ISO Head of Sustainability and Partnerships Noelia Garcia Nebra told ESG Dive in June.
The draft standard received nearly 5,000 comments during the public consultation process, which the ISO spokesperson called “record participation” and “a powerful sign that ISO’s standards-development process is relevant and far-reaching.”
“This is part of ISO’s consensus-based standards development process,” the spokesperson said. “The committee will now consider the extensive feedback received and determine the appropriate next steps for the project.”
Citing anonymous sources, Trellis reported that fossil-fuel-producing nations may have been one group that "voted against moving the current draft forward." Voting closed on September 10, according to ISO’s website.
ISO’s net-zero transition planning standard is intended to set requirements for companies or organizations that claim net-zero aspirations, net-zero aligned transition plans, net-zero aligned progress or net-zero achievement and outlines general guidelines, including the role carbon credits should play. The standard is designed to be sector agnostic, Nebra previously told ESG Dive.
“[ISO/DIS 14060] is not a target-setting standard; it’s a standard about supporting organizations developing their own transition plan based on where they are, the context in which they operate,” Nebra said in an interview prior to the standard’s release. “This is a standard that can be validated and verified by a third party, which is also bringing a level of accountability and credibility that other standards do not.”
ISO’s net-zero transition planning standard is expected to be finalized in 2027, but the timeline depends on the organization responding and incorporating feedback into future iterations of the standard.
Following the release of the draft transition planning standard, ISO and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol announced in July that they would work on a combined carbon accounting standard. The organizations plan to consolidate the GHG Protocol’s scope 1, 2 and 3 standards and guidance in its Action and Market Instruments workstream with ISO’s 14064-1 greenhouse gas accounting standard. A draft of that combined standard is expected in 2027.
