GARP SCR Exam 2026 Curriculum Changes: What’s New, What’s Removed, What’s Modified

GARP SCR Exam 2026 Curriculum Changes: What’s New, What’s Removed, What’s Modified

The GARP SCR Exam remains a practice-oriented assessment designed to test how candidates apply sustainability and climate risk concepts in real-world settings. Officially, the exam is 80 multiple-choice questions (including one multi-part case study) completed in four hours, graded pass/fail.

From a preparation standpoint, the most important takeaway is that GARP SCR Exam 2026 Curriculum Changes are not limited to topic wording; they also include notable shifts in chapter weightings and a more explicit emphasis on testable required online readings. The 2026 Study Guide states that required online readings are testable and that every exam question aligns to a designated learning objective.

What to know about the SCR Exam in 2026

GARP publishes two exam windows for 2026 (April and October) with defined registration and scheduling periods. These details matter because curriculum updates typically align with annual content refresh cycles—meaning your study plan should start from the

most current Study Guide and Learning Objectives document.

GARP SCR Exam 2026 Curriculum Changes at a glance

The table below summarizes the most material 2025 → 2026 changes, based on your 2025 learning-objective screenshots and the official 2026 Study Guide PDF.

Area	What changed in 2026	Why it matters for candidates
Exam weightings (blueprint)	Chapter 6 drops from 12–18 questions (2025) to 8–12 (2026). Chapters 8–10 shift from 4–6 to 3–6 questions.	Rebalance time: Chapter 6 is still central, but the guide signals a more even distribution across chapters.
Required online readings	2026 clearly enumerates required readings and adds explicit learning objectives for them (e.g., PRB/PRI, NGFS, GHG Protocol, TCFD implementation metrics).	These are explicitly testable; treat them like core syllabus content.
Chapter 5 (Sustainable Finance)	Adds a new objective on consumer-facing sustainable finance products, adds explicit social loans, and expands sustainable/green funds to include strategies and roles.	Expands the “products & markets” surface area—expect more application-style questions around instruments and retail-facing offerings.
Chapter 7 (Scenario Analysis)	Adds explicit differentiation: transition vs physical risk scenario planning; reframes toward organizational use cases.	Signals clearer examiner expectations around scenario design choices and risk-pathway distinctions.
Chapter 9 (Climate & Nature Risk Assessment)	Compresses and consolidates objectives (stronger focus on ISSB/TCFD linkage, TNFD/LEAP, and “how to” assessment steps).	Less breadth in the LO list, more emphasis on process and frameworks you must operationalize.
Chapter 10 (Transition Planning & Carbon Reporting)	Adds “drivers of transition plan adoption beyond disclosures” and streamlines several finance/reporting subtopics into fewer bullets.	Suggests more emphasis on why transition planning is adopted (strategy, capital, regulation), not only disclosure mechanics.

What’s new in 2026

Chapter 5: consumer-facing products enter the learning objectives

One of the clearest additions to the GARP SCR Exam 2026 Curriculum Changes is in sustainable finance. Chapter 5 now explicitly includes: “Identify and explain consumer-facing, sustainable finance products.”  In addition, “green loans” is expanded to “green and social loans”, and sustainable/green funds are described with more specificity (investment strategies, environmental objectives, roles in financial markets).

Chapter 7: explicit split between physical vs transition scenario planning

Chapter 7 adds a direct objective to differentiate transition and physical risk scenario planning.  That explicit wording matters because it is easy to “know scenarios” but harder to demonstrate you can distinguish the planning logic, model inputs, outputs, and decision-use across different risk pathways.

Chapter 10: adoption drivers “beyond disclosures”

A new objective in Chapter 10 requires candidates to know the drivers of transition plan adoption beyond disclosures.  Practically, this points to broader strategic drivers (capital access, counterparties, procurement, governance, incentives, policy signals) rather than treating transition planning as only a reporting exercise.

What’s removed or de-emphasized in 2026

Several changes are best described as de-scoping: concepts still appear in narrative context, but they are no longer standalone learning objectives.

• Chapter 5: The separate learning objectives on the Sustainability-Linked Loan Principles and Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles (explicit “core components” bullets in 2025) are streamlined into broader treatment of sustainability-linked instruments.

• Chapter 2: 2025’s explicit MDG reference and “greenwish” phrasing are not maintained as discrete objectives; greenwashing remains but in simpler form.

• Chapter 9: multiple 2025 “breadth” objectives (e.g., wide lists of datasets/tools, broad nature-risk opportunity framing, case-study lessons phrasing) are consolidated into fewer, more process-oriented objectives.

What’s modified or streamlined

A consistent 2026 pattern is consolidation—fewer bullets, broader verbs, more integration across physical/transition and company/portfolio:

• Chapter 6: company-level tools and portfolio-level measurement are explicitly combined into single objectives covering both physical and transition risk.

• Chapter 3: rather than separating “differentiate physical vs transition risk” as its own bullet (2025), 2026 embeds that distinction inside “translate to financial risk” and related mechanics.

How to adjust your study plan for the GARP SCR Exam 2026 Curriculum Changes

1. Start from the learning objectives—literally. The 2026 guide states every exam question maps to an LO; build your notes and practice around LO coverage.

2. Treat required online readings as core curriculum. They now come with explicit learning objectives and calculation expectations (e.g., carbon metrics).

3. Rebalance effort across chapters given the weighting shift, especially Chapter 6 and the case-study-adjacent chapters (9–10).