4% of large companies adhere to climate guidelines

ArabiaWeather - A report today, Monday, showed that half of the largest listed companies around the world, out of thousands, have set an ambitious goal to achieve zero emissions by mid-century. However, a very small proportion of these companies appear to adhere to the UN guidance on quality pledges.

According to an independent data set, including data collected by the University of Oxford through the Net Zero Tracker emissions monitoring project, the number of companies that set zero emissions targets and are included in the Forbes 2000 index has increased by a significant 40%. The number of these companies reached more than a thousand companies in October 2023, compared to about 700 companies in June 2022. It is worth noting that these companies represent about two-thirds of total revenues, or the equivalent of $27 trillion.

Only 4% of large companies adhere to climate guidelines

However, only four percent of these targets appear to meet the standards set by the United Nations' Race to Zero Emissions campaign. These standards include covering all types of emissions, starting work to reduce them immediately, and submitting annual reports on progress in achieving interim and long-term goals.

The pace of implementing changes by governments and companies is set to be the focus of the COP28 climate talks in Dubai, which is scheduled to start at the end of November.

“A clear path towards zero emissions has emerged,” said John Lang, head of the Net Zero Tracker project. “Previous goals for the transition to this trend were vague, but we can now say with certainty that the largest global listed companies are moving in the right direction in this regard.”

The Net Zero Tracker project tracks not only the performance of companies, but also analyzes the pledges made by countries, states, regions and cities, through automated data analysis and human teams.