Around 40% of regions, cities and companies have no emission reduction targets, By Reuters poll shows

By David Stanway

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – More than 40 percent of major companies, cities and regions have yet to set targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to an annual “stock report” published on Monday to measure global progress in the fight against change catastrophic climate.

While more governments and businesses have issued net zero commitments since last year, their attention has been further distracted by wars, elections and economic challenges, leaving a significant “commitment gap”, said Net Zero Tracker, a coalition of University research groups. from Oxford.

As countries prepare to submit new 2035 climate targets to the United Nations, policymakers and company boards are struggling to translate long-term goals into concrete action, with transition plans still lacking in robustness and detail. the researchers said.

“A common theme in this report is the persistent lack of integrity across the board,” said John Lang, who heads Net Zero Tracker’s Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.

The report looked at net zero commitments and action plans from 198 countries, 706 sub-national regions, 1,186 cities and nearly 2,000 listed companies.

They found that while 1,750 entities out of more than 4,000 have made formal zero commitments, nearly 1,700 have not set targets of any kind.

Of listed firms, just under 60% have set net zero targets, up 23% on last year’s report, with a significant increase in commitments from Asia.

The total number of companies without emissions targets fell to 495, from 734 last year. These include electric vehicle makers Tesla (NASDAQ: ) and BYD (SZ: ), Nintendo and Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: ), Net Zero Tracker said.

The report cited Costa Rica, Volvo (OTC: ) and Google owner Alphabet (NASDAQ: ) as examples of “best practice” when it comes to implementing net-zero commitments.

However, only 5 percent of regions, cities and companies met all of Net Zero Tracker’s criteria for “robustness” – which include detailed plans to phase out fossil fuels, it said.

Around half of regions, cities and companies have failed to set targets for non-CO2 greenhouse gases such as methane, and many firms have failed to account for emissions along the entire value chain or clarify how much they will rely on compensation to meet objectives.

Some 148 states covering 88 percent of the world’s total population have net zero commitments, with Mexico, Iran and Azerbaijan, host of the COP29 climate talks in November, among the exceptions, the report said.

The technologies exist to triple current levels of climate ambition, and the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) presented to the UN must provide more detail on how the goals will be implemented, he concluded.

“There’s been some good progress, but we need a lot more,” said Catherine McKenna, a former Canadian environment minister who heads a UN panel of experts on net zero commitments.