• The Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) envisions a global economy in which companies and cities operate within environmental boundaries on a socially equitable basis, through the implementation of science-based targets that reduce and improve their impact on nature and society. In early 2024, the SBTN Ocean Hub, led by WWF and Conservation International, launched a corporate pilot with four companies, Carrefour, Mars Petcare, Bolton Foods and Musholm A/S, which tested draft guidance for the first science-based targets covering seafood value chains. 
• SBTN followed this by opening a public consultation for corporate ocean science-based targets, and the first ocean targets launched in March 2025. This completed SBTN’s initial suite of science-based targets for nature, providing companies with a clear framework for environmental action across freshwater, land, and now ocean.

• The Accountability Accelerator – SBTN’s external validator – will evaluate each company submitting science-based nature targets through an independent expert review process. The process— overseen by an Integrity Council — will check companies’ compliance against requirements to make sure their targets are robust and in line with science. 
• The Accountability Accelerator took center stage during London Climate Action Week with three key events. These included a workshop with Capitals Coalition and Landbanking Group dedicated to integrating nature into financial accounting, a high-impact workshop with Porticus and the Rainforest Foundation Norway focused on practical solutions for the future of mining in the energy transition, and an event with Business for Nature and partners to align and accelerate support for corporate nature action. 

An example of this is Nature Action 100, the first global investor-led engagement initiative to address nature and biodiversity loss, supported by the Accountability Accelerator, which published benchmark indicators that will be used to assess the nature-related ambition and action of the initiative’s 100 companies. 

Another critical step toward embedding nature into mainstream economic and financial decision-making includes a Finance for Biodiversity paper, which aims to integrate science-based targets into financial frameworks and equip financial institutions with the tools to assess nature-related risks and opportunities more rigorously. 

• SBTN’s updated technical guidance and resources, shaped by insights from its year-long corporate pilot, as well as fresh corporate case studies, offer businesses a clearer pathway to taking credible, science-based nature action. The launch of these resources — and their amplification at other key events like World Water Week and Climate Week NYC — ensure companies across sectors are better equipped to understand their impacts and dependencies on nature, and to set targets that drive real change.
• At COP16, the Accountability Accelerator released its ‘Board Pocket Guide‘ and SBTN announced the first-ever public corporate adoption of science-based targets for freshwater and land.

In November, Systems Change Lab made clear what we need to shift over the next ten years to reach global climate goals. Authors emphasize that keeping the 1.5-degree C temperature goal within reach will require a “quantum leap in ambition” across all sectors of the economy. As spotlighted in its webinar about shifting to a circular economy, and research on carbon removal growth and coal industry regression, Systems Change Lab continues to monitor, learn from and mobilize action toward the transformational shifts needed to protect both people and the planet.

A truly visionary economic system that undergoes transformational changes in every sector of the economy must center the perspectives and wisdom of Indigenous Peoples. 

• Following events centering Indigenous communities at COP16 in Colombia, SBTN published Version 1 of its stakeholder engagement guidance, which focuses on how companies can engage with the knowledge and contributions of Indigenous Peoples, local communities and other stakeholders affected by corporate activities and value chains through target-setting. 
• At the World Economic Forum in Davos, SBTN’s Executive Director Erin Billman spoke at a Nature Positive Initiative panel about the interconnection between science-based targets and other leading frameworks for nature. She highlighted new sector guidance from Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, which includes recommendations for SBTN’s approach to setting and disclosing targets. 

Continuing its critical work in Europe, in March the SBTN Nature Transition Lab launched to mobilize French companies toward credible action for nature. Led by WWF-France and the French Office for Biodiversity, target-setting methodologies are integrated as a key tool for companies, along with France’s Entreprises Engagées pour la Naturescheme. 

• A report by the Nonprofit Textile Exchange offers guidance for companies implementing science-based targets for nature in the textile and fashion industries. 
• Accountability Accelerator and SBTN also released new resources to support companies going through the validation process for science-based targets for land.