Dive Brief:
- The Science Based Targets initiative is looking for companies in the power sector to pilot its draft standards for the industry to set near- and long-term climate targets, according to a Dec. 4 press release.
- SBTi — an organization that validates that corporate climate targets align with leading climate science — is seeking companies engaged in power generation, distribution, transmission storage, trading and retail companies to test the standard and ensure it’s practical for the industry.
- SBTi debuted a draft net-zero standard for the power sector this fall, which is designed to be interoperable with version 2 of SBTi’s Corporate Net-Zero Standard. Following pilot testing, an updated draft of the Corporate Net-Zero Standard was released last month.
Dive Insight:
SBTi’s Power Sector Net-Zero Standard will update and replace a “Quick Start Guide for Electric Utilities,” released in 2020. The updates include “a broader set of activities and emission sources” in the standard’s scope and tailor criteria “to the industry’s unique emissions and operational realities,” according to the release.
Over 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions are currently from energy, according to the International Energy Agency. SBTi said the sector standards give companies “a practical and credible framework” for setting science-based climate targets and are designed to help companies “manage transition risks, build resilience, and capture growth opportunities.”
“As renewable energy deployment accelerates and decarbonization becomes increasingly urgent, the power sector is central to the global transition to net-zero,” the release said. “Establishing a robust, science-based standard is essential for ensuring this transition is both credible and effective.”
Companies wishing to pilot the sector standards have until Jan. 16 to complete the application.
The draft standards are designed to apply to companies who generate at least 5% of their total annual revenue from electricity generation or whose combined greenhouse gas emissions generated from power sector activities and sources represent at least 5% of a company’s GHG inventory or are above 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
In addition to spending the year updating its Corporate Net-Zero Standard, SBTi has updated a variety of sector-specific net-zero standards this year. Outside the power sector standard, the organization released a final standard for the financial sector, updated its forest, land and agriculture criteria, drafted and piloted standards for the automotive industry and, most recently, published draft standards for the chemicals sector.
