Home - SMARTargets Public Comment Webcast

Public Comment Period: July 8 – August 22, 2025 (extended to September 3, 2025)

Public webcast introducing the draft methodology: July 8, 2025, 11:00 – 12:00 Eastern U.S. Time

Thank you for your interest in SMARTargets! Welcome to the Public Comment Process website. We invite all stakeholders interested in corporate greenhouse gas targets and strategies to provide feedback on the draft SMARTargets™ Methodology during our public comment period, which runs from July 8 to August 22, 2025 (extended to September 3, 2025).

Below you will find information about the SMARTargets Initiative and Methodology, the webcast initiating the public comment process, and instructions for downloading the draft methodology and for providing comments on the draft methodology.

SMARTargets™ is a research initiative that is developing a new methodology for grounded, actionable corporate climate targets and strategies aligned with science and international goals. The initiative is developing a new methodology, as well as scientific resources characterizing the relevant science, to facilitate informed dialogue and decisions in addressing climate change.

In many countries, decarbonization efforts have begun at national, local, and company levels, and there is growing interest in companies setting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets that are aligned with the Paris Agreement. This has given rise to proposed GHG target setting and assessment methodologies and benchmarks (e.g., SBTi, 2023, 2021; TPI, 2023; Moody’s, 2024). However, assessment of the relevant science and additional research has found that there are important issues essential to address for companies to identify practical and actionable targets and strategies for achieving outcomes aligned with international goals and science. These include consideration of uncertainty, recognition of differences in decarbonization opportunities and risks, and accounting for multiple societal priorities.

Considering these issues when setting targets will facilitate progress by producing strategies that are appropriate for a company and their communities because they reflect a company’s transition opportunities, including the company’s assets, markets, systems, regulatory environment, barriers, risks, and set of societal objectives, such as sustainability, affordability, reliability, and local economic development.

The SMARTargets Methodology is designed to help companies contribute to the global pursuit of international climate aspirations while identifying viable transition strategies. The methodology is a systematic, comparable approach for evaluating transition opportunities and risks and developing credible company-level GHG targets and strategies.

The initial SMARTargets Methodology is designed to support utilities worldwide that are providing electric power, electricity transmission and distribution, and natural gas services to communities. The approach, however, generalizes and can be helpful to other industries and companies as a template for evaluating their transition opportunities and risks and pursuing GHG targets aligned with science and the Paris Agreement.

Having SMARTargets will mean:

The company has ambitious and actionable GHG targets that are aligned with science and the international climate goals,
The company followed a grounded, rigorous, well-defined standardized process (with standardized outputs) that provides transparency and comparability, and
The company has created a wealth of company- and engagement-relevant information on decisions and analysis, transition opportunities, targets, strategy, and risk management that inform cooperation and coordination.

The draft SMARTargets Methodology was developed with input from a formal independent scientific peer review, a Stakeholder Advisory Group of investors, environmental groups, regulators, and cross-sector companies, and utility technical experts. To increase the value and usability of the methodology, we are now seeking input from the broader public.

SMARTargets is an opportunity to make progress by facilitating actionable solutions, elevating transition planning and risk management, and educating companies and stakeholders on transition opportunities and risks, including opportunities for coordination and cooperation to increase ambition.

For more information about SMARTargets, please visit our website. For questions or assistance with the methodology, or if you would like a briefing, please contact EPRI’s scientific leads: Dr. Steven Rose (srose@epri.com) and Dr. Claudia Octaviano (coctaviano@epri.com).

EPRI is a non-advocacy, nonprofit, scientific research organization with a public benefit mandate. EPRI strives to advance knowledge and facilitate informed discussion and decision-making. EPRI has fifty years of recognized expertise in, among other things, climate scenarios, climate-related risk assessment, energy and societal transitions, energy technologies and systems, climate impacts, policy evaluation, and sustainability. EPRI also has recognized research community and scientific leadership, producing peer reviewed publications and contributing to scientific assessments and expert panels, including the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.S. National Climate Assessment, the scientific steering committee of the Integrated Assessment Modeling Consortium (IAMC), international and national research community studies, and the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Advisory Group for Scenario Guidance.