Scoring Decarbonization Progress
How companies across four industries are reducing emissions
In order to achieve ambitious national and global net-zero goals and mitigate climate change, business sectors across the world will need to undergo fundamental change. But as we progress through a critical decade of implementation, are they on track, how is progress toward decarbonization being achieved, and what can be done to accelerate it?
To answer these questions, Economist Impact’s Decarbonization Progress Benchmark evaluates the decarbonization trajectory of the Energy, Manufacturing, Financial Services, and Retail sectors across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. 160 of the largest firms by market capitalization were assessed across four pillars of progress: Corporate governance and public commitments to reaching net-zero emissions, Operational decarbonization efforts, Value chain decarbonization efforts, and Social sustainability and just transition initiatives.
Learn where decarbonization progress is being made, where it must be accelerated and steps your firm can take to keep up.
Sponsor Message: Learn more about how to accelerate your sustainability journey with Microsoft.
Financial Services Sector
Financed emissions- those derived from financial services’ lending, investment, and underwriting portfolios- constitute 99% of the sector’s total carbon footprint.
Banks are yet to address these emissions at the speed and scale needed to meet their net-zero targets. Insurers and Reinsurers need to first set out their Scope 3 net-zero commitments.
Retail Sector
More than 90% of emissions of the retail sector derive from its complex value chains.
To manage these, supermarkets need to foster decarbonizing innovation in their upstream supply chains. Specialty retailers must proactively address the growing emissions from last mile deliveries.
Energy Sector
About 70% of the total global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to the energy sector.
The Energy sector needs to prepare for a world where demand for fossil fuels drops precipitously. It must re-evaluate its key product offerings, which make a sizable contribution to the sector's total carbon footprint.
Manufacturing Sector
Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals and Electronics manufacturers are yet to address their largest pools of emissions.
Chemical manufacturers need to support R&D of low-carbon feedstocks. Electronics manufacturers need to play catch up with other sectors on setting value chain emission reduction targets and measuring and addressing their carbon footprint.
The energy crisis and decarbonizing the economy
Economist Impact explores the impacts of the energy crisis and new regulatory regimes on decarbonization progress across various sectors of the economy.
Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2023. All rights reserved.