The Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) will delay validating the programme’s first nature targets till July after initially planning their debut for Q1 of 2024, according to Executive Director Erin Billman, in the interest of supporting ambition among the 17 firms participating in the pilot phase.

Approximately 260 additional firms are preparing to set SBTN targets once the first targets are validated and all companies become eligible to submit their own for consideration, Billman estimates, although a formal survey has not been conducted.

The roll-out of targets will occur alongside the release of a how-to guide for corporates, introducing SBTN’s more technical methods, Billman added.

Its framework for companies to set targets related to their impacts on nature is expected to play a central role in corporate biodiversity strategies alongside reporting frameworks such as the one released by the Taskforce on Nature-based Financial Disclosures (TNFD).

SBTN will also issue initial guidance for financial institutions seeking to manage financial flows in line with SBTN’s existing methodologies for corporates.

In parallel, Billman said, SBTN is expanding the scope of its methodologies to include ocean targets, as well as further coverage of biodiversity and freshwater pollution.

SECTOR SPECIFIC?

While January’s initial findings from the pilot phase, featuring giants such as LVMH and Bel, noted requests from companies for sector-specific guidance that would be more flexible and tailored to their industries, Billman told Carbon Pulse that this feedback will not necessarily result in separate, sector-specific methodologies.

SBTN will provide sector-specific content in the form of ‘add-ons’, she said, but “that is different from having a sector-specific target-setting method because of the cross-cutting nature of stopping nature loss”.

“Whether we do sector-specific guidance is an open question at this stage,” she added.

“In the past, things that have been done [through] a sector-by-sector perspective have sometimes been siloed, which had unintended consequences. We are seeing the benefits to having taken a holistic, cross-sectoral approach to start.”

PLACE BASED

In addition, Billman noted, the challenges that place-based nature targets have posed for firms – like the traceability of products upstream in the value chain – will be par for the course moving forward.

“The stage of having the luxury of not knowing where upstream materials are coming from, is rapidly drawing to a close. This is a very interesting transition period for companies in terms of capacity building,” she said.

Whereas SBTN supports the collective goals of the nature positivity movement, which transcend ecological boundaries, companies must pursue place-based policies on the ground, according to Billman.

“Because of the place-based nature of things, we aim to equip companies to do their part to meet that global goal, which is distinct from a company being nature positive itself,” she noted.

“We will be focusing the claims that companies can make associated with [nature positivity], to be specific, so that the broader system can have transparency around what [SBTN] does and doesn’t cover.”

“First and foremost, we’re focused on equipping these first movers with making sure that [they’re] validating the right part of ambition and raising it,” she added. “Then, we have several hundred companies preparing to set targets.”

INTEROPERABLE

Billman affirmed that SBTN has maintained close collaborative contact with the TNFD, a risk disclosure initiative analogous to the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), flagging that some of the companies participating in the SBTN pilot are also committed to TNFD.

“The intention among those that operate in this space is to harmonise and simplify where possible,” she said. “In both cases, the need for spatial analysis, and understanding the places in which [firms are] impacting and depending on nature, is essential.”

“Nature is not a monolith around the globe,” she added. “It’s not a single global metric, like it is on climate.”

Billman also told Carbon Pulse that SBTN is not currently able to confirm a position on offsetting nature impacts via biodiversity credits.

In 2023, the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) appeared to differ with SBTN’s greenhouse gas accounting analogue, the Science-based Targets initiative (SBTi), on the permissibility of using carbon offsets in the case of excessive ‘Scope 3’ value chain emissions.

“We will be looking to collaboratively team with SBTi on where their work leaves off, and ours picks up, on this front,” Billman said.

“Right now, there’s a lot of a lot of internal discussion among the NGOs,” she added.

By Alejandra Padin-Dujon – alejandra@carbon-pulse.com

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