The Stats of CDR in SBTi

Participation and Carbon Removal Purchases

A total of 11,221 companies have submitted targets to SBTi. Of these, 70 companies have purchased carbon removals, and 35 of the 70 companies have either committed to SBTi Net Zero Targets or have had their targets validated. Overall, 0.6% of SBTi companies have purchased CDR.

20% increase compared to September 2023 from 32 purchasers to 70; while participation grew 87% from 5998 to 11221.

Volume of Carbon Removals Purchased

Collectively, the 70 companies have purchased 21,292,310 tonnes of durable carbon removals, including Microsoft. Excluding Microsoft, the total volume of durable carbon removals purchased by SBTi participants amounts to 915,189 tonnes.

Sectoral Distribution of CDR Purchasers

An overwhelming 99% of SBTi participants who have bought durable carbon removals are not from hard-to-abate sectors.

Among them, 17 are from Software and Services, 11 from Professional Services, 9 from Banks, Diverse Financials, and Insurance, 5 from Textile, Apparel, Footwear, and Luxury Goods, and 3 from Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology, and Life Sciences.

Net-Zero Companies and CDR Purchases

Seven companies with validated SBTi Net Zero targets have purchased durable CDR. Collectively, these seven companies have Scope 1 emissions totaling 2,167,069 tonnes, Scope 2 emissions of 1,751,334 tonnes, and Scope 3 emissions of 11,894,423 tonnes. To date, they have purchased 19,975 tonnes of carbon removal.

Among the seven companies, three are in Professional Services, two are in Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology, and Life Sciences, and two are in Hotels, Restaurants, and Leisure, and Tourism Services. None of these companies are from hard-to-abate sectors.

Hard-to-Abate Sectors

There are 193 SBTi companies with validated Net Zero targets in hard-to-abate sectors. An additional 175 companies have committed to Net Zero goals.

Estimated* Scope 1 Emissions of Hard-to-Abate Companies with Set Net Zero Targets

The 193 companies with validated NZ targets have estimated total Scope 1 emissions of 2,663 million tonnes.

Projected Residual Emissions and Interim CDR Targets for Companies with Set Net Zero Targets

Based on a 10% residual emissions assumption for Scope 1 at the Net-Zero Year (2050), the 193 companies are projected to have 266.3 million tonnes of residual emissions.

Interim CDR targets for these 193 companies are calculated based on interim removal factors of 5% for 2030, 16% for 2035, 35% for 2040, 60% for 2045, and 100% for 2050. This results in the following targets: 13.3 million tonnes in 2030, 42.6 million tonnes in 2035, 93.2 million tonnes in 2040, 159.7 million tonnes in 2045, and 266 million tonnes by 2050, cumulatively.

Estimated* Scope 1 Emissions of Hard-to-Abate Companies with Set or Committed Net Zero Targets

The 368 companies (193 with validated targets and 175 committed targets) have total Scope 1 emissions of 4331 million tonnes.

Projected Residual Emissions and Interim CDR Targets for companies with Set or Committed Net Zero Targets

Based on a 10% residual emissions assumption for Scope 1 at the Net-Zero Year (2050), the companies are projected to have 433 million tonnes of residual emissions.

For all 368 companies, using the same assumptions and interim removal factors, the interim CDR targets are estimated at 21.7 million tonnes in 2030, 69.3 million tonnes in 2035, 151.6 million tonnes in 2040, 259.9 million tonnes in 2045, and 433.2 million tonnes in 2050, cumulatively.

*To estimate the total Scope 1 emissions of companies with validated and/or committed net-zero targets, we first compiled a list of company names from hard-to-abate sectors. We then collected the most recent Scope 1 emissions data (2021–2023) for these companies from various sources, including corporate sustainability reports, CDP disclosures, SBTi and IEA sector benchmarks, and peer-reviewed studies. The resulting median Scope 1 emissions for each sector are intended to represent typical emissions for a company in that sector.

Read 2023 Blog Post - HERE

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