Net-Zero Roadmap: a dated, costed path from current emissions to a defensible target.

Carbon neutral generally means balancing emissions with purchased offsets, and can be claimed without reducing emissions at all. Net zero, as defined by the Science Based Targets initiative, requires deep absolute reduction across the value chain, of the order of ninety per cent, with only the small residual neutralised through permanent removals. They are not interchangeable, and using them as though they were is a common source of greenwashing exposure.

The Science Based Targets initiative provides a methodology and an external validation route for corporate emissions targets, including its Corporate Net-Zero Standard. It is entirely voluntary. Companies pursue it because a validated target carries weight with investors, customers and CDP scoring that a self-declared one does not.

India announced a national net-zero target for 2070 alongside interim commitments on non-fossil capacity and emissions intensity. The national target does not itself bind a company, but it shapes the policy that will: carbon markets, energy efficiency obligations, renewable purchase obligations and sectoral standards. Corporate targets are usually set on customer and investor expectations, which run considerably ahead of 2070.

A verified baseline; emissions broken down by source and site; a costed list of abatement levers with the reduction each delivers; a sequence with dates and capital requirements; interim targets; assumptions about grid decarbonisation and technology availability, stated explicitly; and the governance by which progress is tracked and reported. Without the cost curve and the capital plan it is a statement of intent.

For most Indian operations it addresses Scope 2, which can be a substantial share of the footprint, through open access, group captive arrangements, rooftop generation or green tariffs, with the benefit appearing in market-based Scope 2 accounting. It does nothing for Scope 1 process and combustion emissions or for Scope 3, so a roadmap that relies on it alone will stall once the electricity is dealt with.

A limited and late one. Under credible net-zero methodologies offsets cannot substitute for reduction and are reserved for neutralising a small residual, with a preference for permanent removals. Separately, India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme creates a domestic compliance market for obligated entities and a voluntary mechanism alongside it, which is a market participation question rather than a decarbonisation strategy.

For a single site, weeks. For a multi-site group with a meaningful Scope 3 tail, several months, and the timeline is driven by data quality more than by analysis. A roadmap built on an unverified baseline will need rebuilding. Where the baseline inventory does not yet exist, that work comes first.