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Climate Action 100+ launches global benchmark to help businesses achieve net zero
Published April 8, 2021
Climate Action 100+, the world’s largest investor engagement initiative on climate change, has launched its first-ever benchmark to evaluate the world’s biggest GHG emitters’ commitment and action on net zero carbon.
The benchmark initiative is made up of three commitment goals: GHG emission reduction, improved governance, and stronger climate-related financial disclosures.
After assessing individual company performance against these goals, the benchmark found none of the focus companies performed at high level across the nine key indicators and metrics used for evaluation. Furthermore, no company has disclosed their 2050 net zero goals in full, including short and medium-term targets for emissions reductions.
Some companies have made more progress than others, but the assessments have shown that Scope 3 emissions are often neglected, as well as there being a lack of clearer strategies for short and medium-term targets. More companies need to align future investments with the net zero transition, climate change governance needs to be improved on the corporate and executive management level, and more focus needs to be put on 1.5-degree pathways.
Climate research and data organisations such as Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI), Carbon Tracker Initiative (CTI), 2° Investing Initiative (2DII) and InfluenceMap (IM) helped to develop the benchmark, which also includes a $54 trillion investor-led initiative to facilitate greater climate ambition and action.
The benchmark aims to set a baseline for what a net-zero aligned business strategy should entail, thus helping businesses shift.
Climate Action 100+ shall, over the next few months, publish sector analyses, and the next iteration of the benchmark will be published in 2022.
