Scope
The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) develops standards, defines and promotes best practices in science-based target setting, offering a range of target-setting resources and tools to help companies set greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets in line with what is at the time being believed to be needed to keep global heating below “catastrophic levels” and reach net-zero by 2050 at latest. Targets are considered to be “science-based” if they are in line with the level of decarbonisation, which is believed to be required to keep global temperature increase below 2°C compared to preindustrial temperatures, as described in the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The SBTi methodology heavily relies on the GreenHouse Gas protocols (i.e., Scope 1 – 3) and deals with GHG emissions on the level of company/organisation, e.g., for the ICT sector – it focuses on Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 KPIs introduced by GHG protocols (e.g. electricity consumption, area of business building floors, business travels, employee commuting, waste generated, purchased goods and services, etc.), thus not considering GHG emissions in details like single service/application contributions, etc.
The SBTi also independently assesses and approves companies’ targets per its strict criteria. So far, more than 5.000 businesses are working with the SBTi to reduce GHG emissions. The SBTi process works as follows:
- Commit: submit a letter establishing intent to set a science-based target,
- Develop: work on an emissions reduction target in line with the SBTi’s criteria,
- Submit: present the target to the SBTi for official validation,
- Communicate: announce the target and inform stakeholders,
- Disclose: report company-wide emissions and progress against targets on an annual basis.
Summary
The SBTi approach is primarily based on the “SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard” followed by the “Sectoral Decarbonisation Approach” (SDA), which is a method for establishing sectoral decarbonisation pathways using physical intensity metrics that converge to a common emissions intensity. An intensity target is then defined by a reduction in emissions relative to a specific business metric, such as the company’s production output (e.g., tonnes of CO2e per tonne product produced). Currently covered sectors are Aluminium production, Apparel and Footwear, Aviation, Buildings, Chemicals, Cement, Finance Institutions, Forest, Land and Agriculture, ICT, Land Transport, Maritime, Oil and Gas, Power, and Steel.
Let’s focus on the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, where faster transmission and more capacity are ever-growing. Historically, the ICT sector has been able to meet increasing capacity and speed demands through technological advancement and the purchase of renewable electricity. However, as new technologies increase in size and complexity, this approach needs further efforts. Thus, SBTi has guided ICT companies (specifically mobile network operators, fixed networks operators and data centre operators) to set science-based emissions reduction targets. The ITU, GeSI, GSMA and the SBTi have developed the guidance document jointly. For ICT operators, emissions associated with the generation and subsequent use of electricity dominate their combined Scope 1 and 2 footprints. Therefore, the pathway associated with these emissions is expected to be similar to that of the power sector, which will reach a zero-convergence point by 2050. The sector pathways, i.e., plan of yearly emissions reduction, are based on emission figures from Recommendation ITU-T L.1470 “GHG emissions trajectories for the ICT sector compatible with the UNFCC Paris Agreement” for 2015 to 2030 in five-year intervals.
Relevance for EXIGENCE
Not of major relevance – potentially useful for the evaluation of the impact EXIGENCE mechanisms for energy consumption optimisation/reduction comparing to overall GHG emissions of, e.g., a mobile operator, calculated by SBTi methodology (including Greenhouse Gas protocols).
