# Which year's emissions must we submit to SBTi in 2026?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/sbti-most-recent-inventory-year-2026

Your base year plus a most recent year of 2024 or 2025. Footnote 19 to C14 of the SBTi Corporate Near-Term Criteria V5.3.1 sets this for 2026 submissions and bans proxy data, so you cannot copy base year figures into the recent year. Each year needs its own records.

## Two years, two jobs

- Base year: the year your target is measured from. No earlier than 2015 (C13).
- Most recent year: shows where you stand today. For submissions in 2026 it must be 2024 or 2025.
- Scope 1 and Scope 2 must use the same most recent year. SBTi recommends Scope 3 uses it too.

## What "no proxy data" rules out

The footnote says applying one reporting year's data to another is not permitted, and gives the example of reusing base year emissions as the most recent year. In practice that also rules out taking last year's total and scaling it by production. Build each year from that year's own electricity bills, fuel invoices and purchase records.

## Which Indian financial year qualifies

The criteria name calendar years. SBTi's majority-month rule, written for ambition checks in the footnotes to C15 and C18, would read FY 2024-25 as 2024 and FY 2025-26 as 2025, so both would fit. On the same reading FY 2023-24 counts as 2023 and would be too old. The criteria do not say outright that this rule labels the most recent year, so confirm with SBTi Services if you plan to rely on it.

## What to have ready

1. Twelve months of electricity bills for the most recent year, with units in kWh.
2. Every fuel invoice for the same months: diesel, LPG, PNG, coal, furnace oil.
3. A Scope 3 inventory for the same year if Scope 3 is 40% or more of your total.
4. The same records for the base year, kept separately, with a note of any site added or sold since.

## Example: a most recent year for a November 2026 submission

- Year chosen: FY 2025-26 (April 2025 to March 2026), read as 2025
- Grid electricity: 1,200,000 kWh x 0.675 kg CO2 per kWh (CEA, FY 2025-26) = 810 t CO2
- Diesel for generators and forklifts: 40,000 L x 2.645 kg CO2 per L = 105.8 t CO2
- Scope 1 and 2 for the most recent year: 810 + 105.8 = 915.8 t CO2
- Not allowed: entering the base year total of, say, 1,050 t again as the recent year

Example company. Scope 1 here counts CO2 from diesel only; add other gases and fuels you use.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads a year's electricity bills and fuel invoices and turns them into Scope 1 and 2 lines with the factor and source on each, so the most recent year is built from its own documents, not copied. It does not set, submit or validate SBTi targets; SBTi Services validates them.

- [Get your carbon number](https://senseible.earth/msme-carbon-number)
- [SBTi and the Indian April to March year](https://senseible.earth/answers/sbti-indian-financial-year-which-calendar-year)
- [SBTi near-term target years and base year](https://senseible.earth/answers/sbti-near-term-target-years-base-year-rule)
- [When SBTi requires a Scope 3 target](https://senseible.earth/answers/when-is-a-scope-3-target-required-sbti)

Sources: [SBTi, Corporate Near-Term Criteria V5.3.1 (final, April 2026, in effect from 14 April 2026): C13, C14 and footnotes 18 to 21](https://files.sciencebasedtargets.org/production/files/SBTi-criteria.pdf), [CEA, CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector, version 22.0](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-view?mappingId=234&lang=en), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2, Energy (diesel default)](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html)

Last reviewed 2026-11-01. The allowable most recent years move each calendar year; re-check footnote 19 for 2027 submissions, which may fall under Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0.