Nearly all companies will miss netzero goals

While more than one-third (34%) of the world’s largest companies are now committed to Net Zero, nearly all (93%) will fail to achieve their goals if they don’t at least double the pace of emissions reduction by 2030, according to a new report from Accenture.

Based on an analysis of commitments to emissions reduction and data from the 2000 largest public and private companies around the world, Accelerating Global Companies toward Net Zero by 2050 finds that growing energy price inflation and supply insecurity is pushing commitments out of reach, even as more companies in every region are setting clear and publicly visible decarbonization goals, with a record rise in the number of corporate targets validated by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) this year alone. Moreover, 84% of companies plan to increase investments in their sustainability initiatives before the end of 2022.

The report finds that acceleration toward net zero will require ‘carbon intelligence’ capabilities that enable organizations to control, improve and drive value-creation by embedding carbon and broader ESG intelligence into their core businesses and across their value chains. This includes integrating carbon, energy and other sustainability data and insights into financial and operational business information to help drive everyday decision-making.

Despite the commitments made, however, only 7% of companies are on track to achieve their net zero targets for scope 1 and 2 emissions at the observed rates of change. Moving targets to 2050 increases that share just slightly to a mere 8%. Even in a scenario where companies accelerate emissions reduction to twice the current rates in the years to 2030 and then three times after – 59% would still fail by 2050; the deadline deemed necessary to avert the most catastrophic and irreversible impacts of climate change.