Tools · Targets
A target announced in a press release almost never carries what IFRS S2 asks for.
Paragraph 33 sets out eight things you must disclose for each climate-related target. Paragraphs 34 to 36 then add the review process, actual performance, and up to nine further elements for greenhouse gas targets. Most published targets carry four or five of them.
Tick what you can evidence for one target. You are scored only against the elements that actually apply, each gap is named, and each gap comes with the document that closes it. Nothing is sent anywhere, there is no signup, and the result has its own link.
Why it scores this way
Evidenced is a higher bar than disclosed, and it is the one that matters in year two.
The checklist asks what you can evidence rather than what you have written, because those are different questions and only one of them survives review. It is straightforward to state a base year in a report. It is a different matter to produce, a year later, the document that fixed that base year, the policy for recalculating it after the acquisition you made in March, and the approval that signed it off.
The elements divide cleanly into two kinds. Definitional ones — the metric, the period, the boundary, the base year — are cheap to evidence if you do it when the target is set, and expensive afterwards, because the people who made the decision have moved on and the reasoning was never written down. Ongoing ones — performance, trend, revisions — can only be built by keeping records as you go. Neither type can be produced retrospectively at the point somebody asks.
Paragraph 34(d) is the sharpest example. It asks for revisions to the target and an explanation of them. If a target was quietly moved two years ago and nobody recorded why, that disclosure cannot now be made honestly, and the gap is permanent.
The one that is missed most
Disclosing a net target obliges you to disclose the gross target too.
Paragraph 36(c) asks whether the target is gross or net, and then adds a condition that is easy to read past: if you disclose a net greenhouse gas emissions target, you are also required to disclose the associated gross target separately.
The reason is straightforward once you see it. A net target blends two quite different things — how much you intend to cut, and how much you intend to offset — into one number, and a reader cannot tell the proportions from the outside. Requiring the gross figure alongside separates the decarbonisation from the compensation. Organisations that have been talking publicly about a net position for years sometimes find they have never calculated the gross one.
Carbon credits carry their own set. Where achieving a net target depends on them, paragraph 36(e) wants the extent of that reliance, the third-party scheme verifying or certifying the credits, the type of credit, including whether the underlying offset is nature-based or a technological removal and whether it reduces or removes, and anything else a reader needs to judge credibility and integrity — permanence being the obvious one.
It applies per target, and to targets you did not choose
These paragraphs apply to each target you disclose, not to your target section as a whole. They also apply to targets you are required to meet by law or regulation, which organisations tend to treat as somebody else's obligation and therefore nobody's disclosure. Run the checklist once per target.
Reference
Every element, and the document that closes it.
The same mapping the checker uses, set out in full so you can work from it directly or hand it to whoever owns the target.
Scroll sideways →
| Ref | Element | What closes it | Applies to |
|---|---|---|---|
| 33(a) | The metric the target is set in | A target definition sheet naming the metric, its unit and how it is calculated. | Every target |
| 33(b) | What the target is for | The board or committee paper recording the objective: mitigation, adaptation, or conformance with a science-based initiative. | Every target |
| 33(c) | Which part of the entity it covers | A scoping note listing the entities, sites or segments in and out, reconciled to the consolidation boundary used for the inventory. | Every target |
| 33(d) | The period the target runs over | The target definition sheet, with the end date and any board approval of it. | Every target |
| 33(e) | The base period progress is measured from | A base year statement, including the policy for recalculating it after an acquisition, disposal or methodology change. | Every target |
| 33(f) | Milestones and interim targets | The interim target schedule, with the same definition detail as the headline target. | Every target |
| 33(g) | Whether it is absolute or intensity based | The target definition sheet. If it is an intensity target, the denominator and where that figure comes from. | Every target |
| 33(h) | How the latest international climate agreement informed it | An alignment assessment showing how the agreement, and any commitment your jurisdiction has made under it, shaped the level you set. | Every target |
| 34(a) | Whether a third party validated the target and the method | The validation letter or certificate, identifying which version of the target was validated and when. | Every target |
| 34(b) | Your process for reviewing the target | A written review procedure: who reviews it, how often, and what triggers an off-cycle review. | Every target |
| 34(c) | The metrics used to monitor progress | The monitoring pack definition, showing which metrics are tracked and at what frequency. | Every target |
| 34(d) | Any revisions, and why they were made | A change log recording what changed, the reason, and who approved it. This is the one that cannot be reconstructed later. | Every target |
| 35 | Performance against the target this period | The performance calculation, traced back to the underlying inventory data rather than restated from a previous report. | Every target |
| 35 | An analysis of trends or changes in performance | A multi-period comparison prepared on a consistent basis, with any rebaselining explained. | Every target |
| 36(a) | Which greenhouse gases the target covers | A gas coverage schedule stating which of the constituent gases are in and which are out. | GHG targets |
| 36(b) | Which scopes the target covers | A scope coverage statement reconciled to the emissions inventory, so the target boundary and the reported boundary can be compared. | GHG targets |
| 36(c) | Whether it is a gross or a net target | A statement of which it is. Answer the net question above as well, because a net target brings a further requirement. | GHG targets |
| 36(c) | The associated gross target, disclosed separately | The gross target, presented in its own right alongside the net one. Required whenever a net target is disclosed. | Net targets only |
| 36(d) | Whether a sectoral decarbonisation approach was used | The methodology note recording whether the target was derived that way. | GHG targets |
| 36(e) | That the target relies on carbon credits | The statement that credits form part of the plan. Answer the credits question above to see the four disclosures this triggers. | GHG targets |
| 36(e)(i) | How far achieving the target depends on credits | The quantified extent of reliance, and how credits sit in the overall plan rather than a general statement that they may be used. | If credits are relied on |
| 36(e)(ii) | Which third-party scheme verifies or certifies them | The scheme name and the registry records for the specific credits. | If credits are relied on |
| 36(e)(iii) | What type of credit | Documentation of whether the underlying offset is nature-based or a technological removal, and whether it works by reduction or by removal. | If credits are relied on |
| 36(e)(iv) | Anything else needed to judge credibility and integrity | The due diligence file, covering permanence assumptions and reversal risk. | If credits are relied on |
Descriptions are ours; the references point at where the binding wording sits in IFRS S2. See the paragraph map for how paragraphs 33 to 36 sit inside the metrics and targets pillar.
What to do with the result
Close the definitional gaps first.
They are the cheapest to fix and they block the others. A target whose boundary and base year are not written down cannot have a defensible performance calculation, because there is nothing stable to calculate against. Fix the definition, then the monitoring, then the narrative.
If several targets score similarly, the problem is a process rather than a target. That is worth knowing before you set another one.
Score the whole disclosure →Six minutes, no signup. Or use the Scope 2 method selector, read the working templates, or see what auditors check first.