REM: Only 40% of major companies, cities and regions have emissions targets, warns Net Zero Tracker

More than 40% of major companies, cities and regions have not yet set targets to curb their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, Net Zero Tracker (NZT), comprising research groups at Oxford University, warned in a stocktake released on September 23, calling for greater action to be taken globally against climate change.

The number of companies, cities and regions with net-zero targets in place has risen by 23%, 8% and 28% respectively since NZT made its last stocktake in June 2023. But there is still a “commitment gap,” according to the tracker, “which is holding back the necessary economy-wide transition.”

There has been only a modest increase in net-zero targets set by subnational governments over the past year, NZT said, with only just over a quarter having set the goal, covering a population of 2.2bn, up from 497mn in December 2020. Twenty-three percent of major cities have net-zero targets, amounting to a population of 793mn, up from 640mn four years ago, but most of these cities are in high-income countries, and only 11% are in lower-income countries.

Almost 60% of the 1,977 publicly-listed companies that NZT tracks have set net zero targets. Weighted by revenue, this amounts to a 67% share.

NZT added that there had been limited improvement in the integrity of national, subnational and company net-zero strategies in the last 18 months. It called on regional governments to vertically align better with national goals on setting short and long-term targets, including policies that support net zero.

Members of the UN-backed Race to Zero initiative performed better than non-members in terms of good net-zero practices, NZT said. It added that the number of companies that had net-zero targets that met all minimum integrity standards had also increased by 63% since June 2023, although the absolute number remains low, at only 61 out of a total of 1,145.

“The powers of subnational governments, to establish and enforce regulations, in areas ranging from urban planning, to transport, to waste and health, are critical to smoothing the path to net zero,” NewClimate Institute analyst and the report’s lead, Sybrig Smit, commented. “If subnational powers are coupled with clear net zero commitments, it sends a clear signal to markets, and raises the ceiling of ambition at the national – and in turn the global level.”

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