“Significant Share” of Firms Lacking Emission Reduction Targets

Net Zero Tracker‘s (NZT) Net Zero Stocktake has found that 65% of the annual revenue of companies on the Forbes 2000 is now covered by a net zero target, rising from US$3.8 trillion in December 2020 to US$26.4 trillion. The NZT database lists and analyses net zero commitments made by states, regions, cities and major listed companies. In this third iteration, NZT’s stocktake exercise focuses on delivery on net zero commitments, which it described as “much more consequential” than its previous two phases. Of the more than 4,000 entities tracked by the NZT, at least 1,475 have a net zero target, including 929 companies from the Forbes 2000 list, marking an increase from 417 firms in December 2020, and 702 in June 2022. However, NZT noted that a “significant share” of subnational and corporate entities still “lack any emission reduction targets”. According to the report, 1,057 of the largest publicly listed companies do not have a net zero target, with a significant proportion also lacking mitigation targets. Its analysis found that only 4% of company net zero commitments meet the revised ‘starting line criteria’, set out in June 2022 by the UN Race to Zero campaign. Additionally, 63% of corporate net zero targets do not fully cover Scope 3 emissions, and only 13% specify conditions under which any offsets would be used. The report’s data also highlighted that US companies (49%) trail their EU counterparts (79%) on net zero target setting.

 

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