Any organisation seeking certification at Step 2 or 3 of the CO₂ Performance Ladder must draw up a Climate Transition Plan (CTP). In this plan, you use concrete targets, measures and a timeline to set out how your organisation will work towards CO₂ reduction over the medium (5 to 10 years) and long term (2050).
The Climate Transition Plan is one of the new elements in Handbook 4.0 of the CO₂ Performance Ladder. The CTP responds to organisations’ need to map out a practical, structured route towards zero emissions and to meet national and international climate goals.
The Ladder’s Climate Transition Plan is aligned with the Climate Transition Plan under the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). There are, however, a few important differences. The Ladder CTP is more concrete when it comes to setting targets and measures for bringing emissions down. The CSRD version focuses mainly on risks and opportunities and how an organisation responds to them. The CO₂ Performance Ladder’s CTP is therefore more ambitious than under the CSRD.
According to the short definition in Handbook 4.0, a CTP is the organisation’s “long and/or medium-term strategy for CO2 reduction”. In its detailed definition, the Handbook describes a strategic, financially substantiated plan. In it, you describe how your organisation will reshape its strategy, activities and governance model towards zero CO₂ emissions by 2050, and how you will make your business model future-proof.
You only need to draw up a Climate Transition Plan from Step 2 of CO₂ Performance Ladder 4.0 onwards. The CTP for Step 2 focuses on:
For Step 3, the CTP expands to cover:
In addition to your Climate Transition Plan, you draw up an Action Plan. In it, you describe your short-term targets and actions — that is, for the coming years. Although you do not need a Climate Transition Plan for Step 1, you do prepare an Action Plan for emissions reduction at this Step.
What exactly do you put in a Climate Transition Plan? A CTP usually consists of six main components:
In your CTP, you describe the impact the climate transition has on your core activities, such as the products you make or the services you provide. You also consider developments such as grid congestion or geopolitical tensions. You indicate the extent to which the transition and these developments affect your activities, and what the opportunities and risks are for reducing your emissions. If you are part of an international company, you describe the relationship between your organisation’s strategy and the strategy at international level.
For your CTP, you must use scientifically substantiated, measurable and time-bound targets for energy saving and emission reduction. You do this for the short, medium and long term. You also make clear how these targets contribute to achieving the 1.5°C pathway of the Paris Agreement.
To draw up a plan, it is important to name concrete actions and measures — for example, how you will adapt your products, services or activities so that you emit less CO₂. Here you consider, among other things, procurement and design choices, the use of renewable energy, electrification, energy efficiency, innovations and collaboration with value chain partners.
Your actions and measures need to include how you will pay for them. This concerns capital expenditure (capex) and operating expenditure (opex), and how these fit within your organisation’s financial plans and growth strategy. You also assess your locked-in emissions: emissions from assets such as office buildings or factories that you will have regardless, because you cannot replace these assets with cleaner alternatives in the coming years.
Within and outside your organisation, various people, departments and parties have a role in CO₂ reduction — from employees and directors to shareholders and value chain partners. In your CTP, you make the roles and responsibilities of each party clear. You also ensure that you integrate your CTP with your general organisational policy and link it to Key Performance Indicators. This gives you an incentive to promote emissions reduction within your organisation and across your value chain.
Another important requirement is that you clearly show how your CTP has been developed. How did you draw up the document, how was your footprint compiled, what assumptions did you make, and how did you verify and validate everything internally and externally? How do you follow up on your CTP periodically and report on progress? You also show how you communicate internally and externally, and how everything relates to the standards of other frameworks, such as the Carbon Disclosure Project and the CSRD.
Several additional requirements apply to the CTP:
Your Climate Transition Plan must be available during the initial audit.
For the recertification audit — which takes place every three years — you must revise your CTP to reflect the most up-to-date situation. If a major change occurs in the meantime, such as entering a market on another continent or acquiring a company, this may be a reason to update your CTP sooner.
Within your CTP, you position your organisation’s climate ambitions against a sector benchmark. This shows how ambitious you are compared with others in your sector.
For your CTP, you must also analyse your knowledge and collaboration needs. What knowledge do you need in-house, and what collaboration is required to secure the transition?
Another requirement is that you enter into discussion with a party in your value chain. For Step 3, you must additionally hold a dialogue with an external expert drawn from a list compiled by SKAO.
Finally, in your Climate Transition Plan you set out how you communicate about your targets, actions and timeline internally and externally — for example, through publications on your own website and on that of the CO₂ Performance Ladder.
“The CTP responds to organisations’ need to map out a practical, structured route towards zero emissions and to meet national and international climate goals.”
Bart de Bruyckere
Dans la vidéo ci-dessous, Bart De Bruyckere, de l’Association belge des grands entrepreneurs en bâtiment (ADEB-VBA) et membre du Collège central d’experts (CCvD), explique ce qu’est un plan de transition climatique et quels sont les éléments qui le composent.
Dans la vidéo (sous-titrée en français), les intervenants répondent également aux questions des organisations qui ont participé à la session. Si vous avez encore des questions après avoir visionné le webinaire, n’hésitez pas à nous contacter.
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