How Is KR 8.3 Tracking?
Climate movements consist of more than citizens and consumers. For maximum impact, they must also enlist corporations, shareholders, and employees. For two decades, pressure has been mounting for stronger corporate commitments to decarbonize.
Our Business key result tracks the global business community’s stated commitments to net zero emissions by 2040. Our key result is to have 100 percent of the Fortune Global 500 in the fold.
Pressure is most effective when it comes from industry leaders aligned with stakeholders. So far, nearly half of the companies in the Global 500 have committed to the net zero goal, but only 6 percent of these companies have committed to the 2040 target date across Scope 1 (direct emissions in operations, such as transportation fleets), Scope 2 (indirect emissions through purchasing, such as electricity), and Scope 3 (supply chains).
To verify stated progress, we track companies with missing transparency reports. To accelerate action, we set a milestone for 100 percent of these companies to reach net zero in their own operations by 2030.
The full spreadsheet detailing each company’s commitment can be found here. For any changes, please send a note to act@speedandscale.com with the specific edit and link to public documentation.
With only a handful of exceptions, the largest companies in the world have yet to commit to a comprehensive net zero target by 2040.
The good news is that a majority of the world’s biggest businesses—56 percent of the top 250—issue regular public reports on their progress in cutting emissions. The bad news is that companies in China—the top-emitting country by far—remain opaque.
Only 11 of the globe’s top 250 companies have made commitments to zero out carbon emissions from their internal operations by 2030.
Data for KR 8.3 is sourced by the Speed & Scale team, pulling June 2022 data from Fortune 500 websites to track emissions targets and transparency reports of each corporation.