Understand the temperature score
How the temperature score turns a company's emissions reduction target into an implied warming outcome, and why two portfolios can score very differently.
A company's temperature score is not a measure of how much it emits today. It is the degree of global warming that would result if every company set the same level of ambition in its emissions reduction target as this one has. It reflects the ambition of a stated commitment, not measured or actual emissions performance, and it assumes the company goes on to deliver the target it has set.
How the score works
The score compares a company's committed reduction target — a percentage cut in emissions by a target year — against the reduction pathway that climate science says is needed to keep warming within a given threshold. The closer the target tracks that required pathway, the lower, and better, the score.
Because the score is about the pace and depth of a commitment rather than the size of a footprint, two companies with very different total emissions, or in different industries, can end up with similar or very different scores. A small emitter with an unambitious target can score worse than a large emitter with a steep, science-aligned target.
Worked example. Company A commits to a 95% cut in its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030 — close to full decarbonisation of its direct and energy emissions within the decade, matching the pace needed to keep warming to around 1.5°C. Its temperature score comes out at or near 1.5°C. Company B commits to a 50% cut by 2030 — a meaningful reduction, but roughly half the pace of Company A's, and well short of a 1.5°C-aligned pathway by that date. Company B's score lands higher, around 1.7°C, even if its absolute footprint is smaller than Company A's.
Where the score comes from
Connect Earth does not re-implement temperature-rating methodology. Portfolio holdings are scored by calling the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)'s own public temperature-scoring function directly, so a company's score on the platform reflects SBTi's methodology and target data.
Matching a holding to SBTi data
Each portfolio holding is looked up in the SBTi database using identifiers such as its ISIN or LEI.
- If a match is found, the company's targets and scope emissions data are run through SBTi's scoring function to produce its temperature score.
- If no match is found, the holding is given a default score of 3.4°C.
Target types
SBTi scores against the targets a company has set, and those targets can differ in horizon, scope coverage, and certification status.
Near-term, mid-term, and long-term
SBTi itself defines two target horizons:
- Near-term — typically under five years out.
- Long-term — typically out to 2050.
The Connect Earth platform additionally shows a mid-term category (for example, around 2035) as an internal middle layer between the two. Mid-term targets are less commonly set by companies than near-term or long-term ones, so this category is populated less often.
Long-term targets and net-zero validation
A long-term target, for scoring purposes, is any target with a far-out target year. It can be a company's own stated ambition, with whatever scope coverage and depth the company chose.
A validated net-zero target under SBTi's Net-Zero Standard is a long-term target — not a separate target stacked alongside it. To be validated, a long-term target has to clear a higher bar: roughly 90–95% depth of reduction, full coverage of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, a paired near-term target, and a credible plan to neutralise whatever emissions remain. Net-zero validation is a certification tier on top of whichever long-term target a company has — it is not an additional input to the score.
In practice, a company has one of:
- No long-term target, in which case the long-term score defaults.
- A long-term target that has not been validated as net-zero, which still feeds the long-term score on its own numbers, just without the certification.
- A validated net-zero target — the long-term target itself, certified.
Scope coverage
Targets can also cover different combinations of emissions scopes — Scope 1+2 only, Scope 1+2+3, or Scope 3 only. This affects how complete a given target is, and how directly comparable it is with another company's target covering a different set of scopes.
Portfolio-level scoring
Company-level temperature scores roll up to a single portfolio score, weighted by each holding's AUM.
Why this can differ from other providers
A portfolio's temperature score can differ noticeably between data providers, for a few reasons:
- Methodology — providers can use different scoring approaches to translate a target into a warming outcome.
- Underlying target data — some providers score only against SBTi-validated targets, while others draw on a broader set of self-declared corporate climate commitments.
- Unmatched holdings — providers handle holdings they can't match to target data differently. Connect Earth's default of 3.4°C for an unmatched holding can materially shift a portfolio's average score when SBTi coverage of that portfolio is incomplete, so two providers with different match rates can report meaningfully different portfolio scores for the same holdings.
What the score doesn't tell you
The temperature score measures the ambition of a stated target, not a company's real-world emissions performance or its progress towards delivering that target. Because scoring depends on matching a holding to SBTi's dataset, results are also shaped by how much of a portfolio SBTi has coverage for — a portfolio with strong coverage produces a more representative score than one where many holdings fall back to the default.
Related features
- Periodic report
- EU Taxonomy alignment — climate mitigation objective
- Principal Adverse Impacts — climate-related PAIs