“High Impact” Emitters Must Follow Science

Over 300 financial institutions and multinational firms have called on “high impact” companies to set science-based targets (SBTs) for reducing emissions. The 318 firms and institutions, which are worth US$37 trillion in assets, are calling on over 1,000 business, including FedEx, Caterpillar, Nintendo, Qantas and Rio Tinto, to establish and emissions reduction target approved through the Science Based Targets initiative. The 2022 Science-Based Targets campaign is coordinated by environmental disclosure platform CDP. Nearly half of the targeted businesses are based in the Asia-Pacific region, with 23% based in the US, while one in ten of the targeted companies were European. The campaign request is backed by financial institutions, including Allianz Global Investors, AXA Group, UBS, and the European Investment Bank, with the campaign growing by 30% since last year. Laurent Babikian, CDP’s Joint Global Director Capital Markets, said: “The past few months of extreme weather have again shown us what a warming world does at 1.2 degrees. It will get catastrophically worse unless we see an unprecedented reduction in GHG emissions. SBTs are the most accurate assessment of a company’s total emissions impact in the market – without them, companies simply cannot convincingly show investors and customers that they are transitioning”. 

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