Investors With $54 Trillion Say Net Zero Requires Drastic Action
By Alastair Marsh
That’s the findings of an analysis of companies’ climate ambitions and progress towards net zero from Climate Action 100+, an investor group that seeks to pressure the largest carbon emitters to cut their greenhouse-gas emissions. The investors found that none of the 159 companies they studied has fully disclosed how they will eliminate their net emissions. And while 83 of them have said they plan to reach net zero by 2050, only half of those commitments include emissions generated by customers using their products.
That’s the findings of an analysis of companies’ climate ambitions and progress towards net zero from Climate Action 100+, an investor group that seeks to pressure the largest carbon emitters to cut their greenhouse-gas emissions. The investors found that none of the 159 companies they studied has fully disclosed how they will eliminate their net emissions. And while 83 of them have said they plan to reach net zero by 2050, only half of those commitments include emissions generated by customers using their products.
Companies in all sectors are being pressed by investors, governments and the general public to cut emissions and retool their operations for a low-carbon world, and nowhere is this pressure greater than for fossil-fuel companies. That’s because they account for the lion’s share of emissions -- the companies targeted by Climate Action are responsible for more than 80% of global industrial greenhouse-gas emissions -- and because scientists have said emissions will need to drop by about 50% by 2030 and reach net zero by the middle of the century to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.
The Climate Action 100+ Net-Zero Company Benchmark revealed that only six companies, including RWE AG, Total SE and Repsol SA, have explicitly committed to align their future capital expenditures with their long-term emissions reduction targets. In addition, while climate change issues are overseen by the board at 139 of the focus companies, only a third of companies tie executive remuneration directly to the firm’s emission-reduction targets.