SBTi Reaches 2,253 Companies in Record 2021 as 1.5C Becomes Standard

The Science Based Targets initiative grew to 2,253 companies in 2021, with approvals running three times faster than in 2020 and over 110 new companies joining per month. SBTi companies now cover over a third of global market capitalisation, equivalent to 38 trillion US dollars.

At end-2021, 1,082 companies had approved SBTi targets and 1,171 had committed to set them, spanning 70 countries and 15 industries. The rate of target validation more than doubled, from 20 per month in 2020 to 49 in 2021. SME participation rose sharply, with 177 SMEs setting targets compared to 29 in 2020, following the introduction of a streamlined SME validation route in mid-2020. By end-2021, 209 SMEs had approved targets, and 96% of all SBTi companies with approved targets included scope 3 emissions coverage.

The proportion of companies with 1.5 degrees Celsius-aligned targets reached 68% by end-2021, up from 41% in 2020, driven by the Business Ambition for 1.5 degrees Celsius campaign and an SBTi policy requiring all new submissions from July 2022 to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold. The SBTi's Net-Zero Standard, launched in 2021, attracted 727 companies that committed to net-zero targets by December 2021 through the Business Ambition for 1.5 degrees Celsius campaign, of which over 60% had already committed to net-zero targets.

Geographic concentration remains a structural challenge, with G7 countries representing 55% of all companies and non-G20 companies accounting for 34% of approvals and commitments. However, 2021 saw notable increases in target adoption from China, India, Brazil, South Korea and South Africa, reflecting growing corporate engagement with science-based targets in major emerging economies. The SBTi's scope 1 and 2 emissions coverage increased more than ten-fold between 2015 and 2021, from 145 million to 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

Key figure — $38 trillion global market capitalisation covered by SBTi companies at end-2021