At least 84% of listed companies did not commit to decarbonising in line with net-zero targets, regardless of their sector as of 24 June 2024. This has been revealed in a periodic report issued by MSCI, an American finance company, based on the findings of their Net-Zero Tracker.
The tracker assesses the progress of publicly listed companies in the MSCI ACWI Investable Market Index (IMI) towards keeping global warming well below 2°C. It identifies leading companies with enhanced climate disclosures and those that are lagging. It provides investors, companies, financial intermediaries, and policymakers with an objective measure of listed companies’ contributions to global carbon emissions and their strides toward a net-zero economy. The report also shows that nearly two-thirds of listed companies are on track to exceed a 2°C temperature rise, according to metrics from MSCI ESG Research and the SBTi.
The other key findings of the report are as follows –
- 22% of listed companies have set decarbonisation targets aligned with science-based pathways to achieve net-zero by 2050, an increase of 8 percentage points from the previous year.
- 40% of companies have established decarbonisation targets aimed at net-zero, up 2 percentage points from the previous year.
- 56% of companies have disclosed GHG emissions-reduction commitments, up from 54% last year.
- 69% of companies disclosed their Scope 1 and/or Scope 2 emissions, a 19-percentage point increase from the previous year.
- 47% disclosed at least some of their Scope 3 emissions, up 10 percentage points from the previous year.
- 38% disclosed some upstream Scope 3 emissions, up 8 percentage points, while 28% disclosed some downstream Scope 3 emissions, up 7 percentage points.
The report also found that listed companies are projected to exhaust their share of the global carbon budget for a 1.5°C temperature rise by October 2026. For 2024 the estimated Scope 1 GHG emissions from listed companies will be 10.9 billion tons, a 7.7% decrease from 2023 while the emissions from listed companies account for about 20% of global GHG emissions, with a projected 7.7% decrease from the previous year.