ISO 14060 Net Zero Standard: Common questions answered
ISO 14060, the draft Net Zero Standard for organisations, opened for public consultation on 17 June 2026. Our main article sets out what it is and how its targets work. This piece answers the questions we are hearing most when weighing ISO against SBTi.
The answers are written to be useful whether or not you have set science-based targets. Where a figure appears, it is the standard's own worked illustration, not a fixed rule. The binding requirement is to set a cumulative carbon budget from a peer-reviewed, Paris-aligned pathway and to keep your emissions within it.
What is ISO 14060, in plain terms?
It is a draft international standard that sets out what an organisation has to do to make a net zero claim that an accredited third party can check. It does not change how you count emissions. It builds on the accounting you already use, the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064-1, and adds a governance layer on top. In effect it turns voluntary net zero guidance into a formal standard that can be validated, verified and, in time, referenced in regulation.
Is ISO 14060 mandatory yet, and when does it apply?
Not yet. It is a consultation draft, open for comment until 17 August 2026, with publication expected around May 2027. There is nothing to comply with today. Once published it can be certified against and referenced by regulators, so the value now is in testing your targets against it and commenting where the draft would create real cost.
Who does ISO 14060 apply to?
Organisations, not individual products, services, events or territories, which are covered by other standards. It was written primarily for non-financial institutions. A financial institution can apply it to its own operations, but its financing and investment activities are routed to a separate standard, ISO/FDIS 32212.
Does ISO replace SBTi?
No. They do different jobs. SBTi remains the voluntary, high-visibility signal that investors read. ISO is a formal standard that an accredited body can certify and a future regulator could reference. Large organisations may end up wanting both, so the practical aim is to build one set of numbers that serves each.
Does ISO replace my reduction targets with a budget?
No. You still set interim reduction targets, much as you do for SBTi. ISO adds one rule on top, your emissions, added up across every year to net zero, must stay within a fixed carbon budget. The year-by-year targets stay, the budget caps their running total, so a slow start cannot be made up later.
How can a budget of about 14 times base-year emissions mean a 90% cut?
The two describe different things. The 90% is where you finish, your emissions in the net-zero year. The 14 times is the total you emit along the way, the area under a line falling from today's level to near zero over about thirty years. A declining line like that averages roughly half its starting point, and half of thirty years is about fifteen, so the running total lands near 14 to 15 times base-year emissions. The endpoint is still a reduction of around 90%.
Can I use my existing SBTi targets as the basis for ISO?
Often, yes. ISO does not force its own budget factors on you. It accepts any peer-reviewed method that produces similar or lower cumulative emissions. An SBTi pathway is peer-reviewed and 1.5°C-aligned, so it can serve as the basis, provided its total emissions to net zero are no higher than a standard-aligned budget. For many companies that means one set of numbers can serve both.
Can I meet my Scope 2 target by buying renewable energy certificates?
Not the long-term one. ISO sets the long-term Scope 2 target on a location-based basis, which reflects the actual grid you draw from. Certificates and power purchase agreements (PPAs) still count, but only toward the interim targets for the share of low-carbon energy you consume. So your long-term Scope 2 number falls as the grid decarbonises and as you genuinely use clean power, not as you buy certificates. This is the biggest change for anyone used to a market-based SBTi Scope 2 target.
Where does this leave market instruments?
ISO ring-fences certificates and contracts in clause 11.2, accounted separately from your physical inventory, tied to an equivalent volume of your own emissions, and never a substitute for real cuts. But the detailed accounting rules sit with the GHG Protocol's Actions and Market Instruments guidance, which is expected by the end of 2028, and the revised ISO 14064-1 should follow soon after. The relationship between location‑based targets, interim market‑based milestones, and segregated reporting will become clearer once those updates land, so treat the current drafting as provisional.
Do I have to set targets on all of my Scope 3 emissions?
You include all of Scope 3 in your long-term net zero pathway, and set interim targets on every category that is significant, judged by how large it is and how much influence you have over it. You can leave the rest out, but you have to disclose publicly how much you have excluded and why. Alongside the reduction targets, ISO also expects activity targets, such as engaging your suppliers to cut their own emissions.
Do I have to use 2020 as my base year?
No. 2020 is the anchor for the global carbon budget, not a baseline you must adopt. You can choose later base year for your own figures, or in principal and earlier one, though the standard’s budget logic makes that more challenging in practice. The catch is that the emissions you have produced since 2020 are then subtracted from your budget, so starting later does not give you a larger one. It also means a pandemic-distorted 2020 inventory is not forced on you.
What happens if I miss a target?
It depends on the scope. Scope 1 is strict, go over its cumulative budget and you lose your progress claim until you bring direct emissions back inside it. Scope 2 and 3 are more forgiving, miss an interim target by up to 25% and you keep your claim, with up to three years to recover, as long as you pay to cover the shortfall and disclose it. Miss by more than that, or breach Scope 1, and the claim falls away.
Will I need carbon removals, and what kind?
Yes, but only at net zero, and only for the residual emissions you genuinely cannot eliminate. Those must be counterbalanced with durable carbon dioxide removals, ones expected to keep carbon stored for at least 100 years, or backed by risk mechanisms such as buffer pools that secure the same outcome. The removals can be nature-based or technology-based, what’s key is durability, additionality and credible accounting, not the type. Reduction and avoidance credits do not count. You are also expected to scale up to this across the transition rather than scramble at the end, and durable supply is scarce and expensive today, so it is worth pricing that step now.
What about the emissions I am still producing on the way to net zero?
ISO handles these separately from end-state removals. While you are still reducing, your total emissions each year are your remaining emissions, and the draft requires you to put finance behind climate action and disclose its value against them. One suggested method is an internal carbon fee on a share of those emissions, with the aspiration of eventually covering all of them. This is climate finance, or contribution, rather than offsetting your own footprint, and it is the closest thing in ISO to SBTi's ongoing emissions responsibility. Unlike SBTi, the draft does not tie it to a set date such as 2035, and the details, how much to cover, the carbon price, and what the finance can fund, are still open for consultation.
This is a standard designed to be applicable to all organisations, but the challenge of applying it varies significantly by sector, size and maturity. A multinational manufacturer faces different issues from a professional services firm, and the standard's flexibility around pathway selection and Scope 3 significance means there is no single answer.
If you would like to talk through what ISO 14060 could mean for your specific organisation, or for a portfolio, we would be happy to help.
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