For years, the most common question from companies buying carbon credits was a nervous one: will any of this still count? The SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0 answers it. Carbon credits and carbon removals now have a defined, planned place on the path to net zero, with a timeline companies can build a strategy around.
The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is the body most large companies use to validate that their climate targets are credible and aligned with limiting warming. Its standard is, in effect, the rulebook for what counts as a serious net-zero commitment. V2.0 is the new version of that rulebook, and for the first time it sets out a clear sequence for how credits and removals support a target.
The short version: what V2.0 says about carbon credits
Under the SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0, companies still reach their targets by cutting their own emissions, and carbon credits do not substitute for those cuts. What is new is a structured framework called Ongoing Emissions Responsibility (the successor to beyond value chain mitigation, BVCM), which gives credits a role in three stages: an optional recognition programme companies can join now, a requirement from 2035 for Category A companies to fund carbon removals, and a requirement to neutralise all remaining emissions with removals once a company reaches net zero.
For the carbon market, this is the clarity that has been missing: a defined, growing and eventually mandatory demand for high-quality credits and removals.
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Key dates
When | What happens |
|---|---|
June 2026 | SBTi publishes the Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0 |
Q1 2027 | SBTi expects to open its validation portal for V2.0 target submissions |
Q1 2027 to 31 January 2028 | Companies can submit targets under Version 1.3.1 or Version 2.0 |
From 1 February 2028 | Version 2.0 becomes mandatory for new submissions |
Until 2035 | Ongoing Emissions Responsibility recognition is optional for all companies |
From 2035 | Category A companies must support carbon removals every year |
Net-zero year (2050 at the latest) | All residual emissions neutralised with eligible removals |
Companies that already have 2030 targets will set their next targets, for 2030 to 2035, under V2.0.
The road ahead, in three stages
The heart of V2.0 for anyone in the carbon market is the Ongoing Emissions Responsibility (OER) framework. The idea behind it: companies keep emitting while they work towards net zero, so they should take responsibility for those ongoing emissions by funding climate action beyond their own operations. The framework lays this out as three stages that arrive in sequence.
Stage 1: get recognised now
Once V2.0 is in use, companies can earn public recognition on the SBTi Dashboard for funding climate action, scaled to how much of their ongoing emissions they cover over a five-year period. There are three levels:
Engaged: cover at least 1% of total ongoing emissions, by funding verified mitigation equal to that volume or by committing a contribution budget. SBTi recommends a budget of at least $20 per tonne of CO2 equivalent.
Advanced: cover all scope 1 and 2 emissions plus enough scope 3 to reach at least 10% of total emissions, through verified mitigation or a budget of $20 per tonne.
Leadership: cover 100% of total ongoing emissions with a budget of $80 per tonne, which SBTi describes as the full internalisation of the cost of climate change.
This stage rewards companies for acting early. A buyer does not have to wait for a future deadline to be credited for climate action today. Participating companies do have to report a full scope 3 inventory every year and obtain independent assurance of their contributions.
Companies that benefit most from V2.0 are the ones that treat the optional stage as a head start. Recognition is available now, high-integrity supply is still accessible, and the buyers building relationships with strong projects this year will be in a far stronger position when the requirements tighten. Early movers get both the recognition and the better supply.
Boris Bekkering
Commercial Director, Regreener
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Contribution versus neutralisation
For newcomers, the most important distinction is between two words SBTi uses carefully: contribution and neutralisation. A climate contribution funds emission cuts or removals somewhere beyond your own operations, and it is reported alongside your emissions rather than cancelling them out. Neutralisation is the specific act of balancing out the emissions you cannot eliminate, and it can only be done with carbon removals.
This tells you what to buy and when. In the recognition stage, both verified reductions and removals count. As a company approaches net zero, the focus shifts to removals. Knowing that now lets a buyer plan a portfolio that ages well instead of buying for today and re-buying later.
Stage 2: removals become required from 2035
From 2035, Category A companies move from optional to mandatory. Category A covers large businesses in any country, with annual turnover of at least €450 million or at least 1,000 employees. Mid-sized companies in high-income countries such as the Netherlands also fall into Category A by meeting at least two of three thresholds (a €25 million balance sheet, €50 million turnover, 250 employees) or by emitting 10,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent or more across scopes 1 and 2. Smaller companies, and mid-sized companies based in lower-income countries, sit in Category B and are not bound by the 2035 requirement. Our guide to SBTi Category A or B explains how the test works for groups and subsidiaries.
Category A companies must fund eligible carbon removals equal to 1% of their ongoing scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions in 2035, rising linearly to 100% by their net-zero year, and no later than 2050. Because that share rises faster than emissions fall, the required volume in tonnes peaks in the 2040s, before the net-zero year. Our article on SBTi carbon removal requirements works through the numbers.
Durability rises alongside volume. From 2035, long-lived removals, which keep carbon stored for centuries to millennia, must cover at least 10% of the covered emissions from long-lived greenhouse gases such as CO2, rising linearly to 100% by the net-zero year. SBTi has said it will review these post-2035 criteria in the next major revision, but the direction is set: durable removals are moving from a niche choice to a core requirement.
Stage 3: full neutralisation at net zero
When a company reaches its net-zero target year, and every year after, it must reduce emissions to zero or residual levels and neutralise everything that remains using eligible carbon removals. Residual emissions from long-lived greenhouse gases must be balanced with long-lived removals; the rest can use short-lived removals, long-lived removals or a mix. Scope 1 residuals are the company’s direct responsibility; scope 3 residuals can be neutralised jointly with value chain partners that report the same emissions.
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What counts as a quality credit
V2.0 rewards the diligence good buyers were already doing. To support recognition or to neutralise emissions, a credit has to meet SBTi’s integrity criteria and, where they exist, recognised third-party high-integrity criteria. In practice that means:
Additionality: the climate benefit would not have happened without the funding.
Conservative measurement: verified after the fact, with defined boundaries, monitoring and accounting for leakage.
Reversal safeguards where carbon could be released again.
Independent assurance by an accredited third party.
Serialised, registry-tracked units that are permanently retired when claimed and not claimed by anyone else at the same time.
For neutralisation, companies must also report whether removal credits are authorised by the host country with corresponding adjustments. And credits never count towards reduction targets: SBTi states that supported mitigation outcomes are not counted toward scope 1, 2 or 3 target implementation and are not netted from the inventory.
These are the same fundamentals Regreener applies through its 100+ datapoint quality framework, so V2.0 effectively confirms that high-quality procurement and a credible SBTi position are the same thing.
What else is new in V2.0 (beyond credits)
V2.0 is a full update to the standard, and several changes outside the credit rules make it more practical to commit to:
Two company categories. Category A (large companies everywhere, plus medium-sized companies in high-income countries) and Category B (smaller companies, and medium-sized companies in lower-income countries). For Category B, scope 3 targets, transition plan disclosure and base-year assurance are optional.
A current target base year. Instead of a fixed historical year, V2.0 sets targets from a current target base year using the latest data. Category A companies need at least limited assurance of that base-year data.
Transition plans. Every company needs a transition plan that shows how it will implement its targets and its high-level path to net zero. Category A companies publish it within 15 months of target validation.
More realistic scope 1 options. An absolute reduction, a sector-specific emissions-intensity pathway (for steel, cement or chemicals, for example) or an asset transition route for businesses whose equipment turns over slowly. All routes aim for net zero by 2050 or sooner.
A broader scope 2. Low-carbon electricity explicitly includes renewables, nuclear and generation fitted with carbon capture and storage. Companies with 10 GWh or more of annual electricity use in an activity pool report how much of it is matched to low-carbon power on an hourly basis, with recognition available for leaders.
Flexible scope 3. Near-term targets cover every scope 3 category that is 5% or more of scope 3 emissions, with limited, justified exclusions. Companies choose between overarching reduction targets, supplier and customer alignment targets, or category-specific targets.
A best-efforts progress model. A company that ends a cycle with higher emissions than targeted faces steeper reductions in the next cycle, rather than being pushed out of the framework.
What this means for your strategy
V2.0 turns a vague obligation into a plan. There are two demand signals, and they call for different buying. The recognition stage rewards a broad mix of high-integrity credits, where reductions and removals both qualify and early action earns public credit. The 2035 and net-zero stages point towards removals, and increasingly towards durable removals that are scarce today.
A company that understands this can build a portfolio in the right order: secure recognition now with strong, verified projects, and build a relationship with durable removal supply, often through an offtake agreement, before demand intensifies. Regreener structures client portfolios around this sequence, matching each credit to the stage it is meant to serve, so a buyer’s spending today still works in 2035 and at net zero.
The first step is knowing where you stand. Regreener’s free SBTi V2 calculator shows which SBTi V2 category you fall in and how many removals you need from 2035, with the long-lived share and an indicative cost. For a portfolio plan built on that, talk to a Climate Strategist.
