Aligning corporate greenhouse-gas emissions targets with climate goals

Abstract

Corporations need to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions to help avoid dangerous climate change. A new method for setting emissions targets, which can also be used to assess corporate climate performance and increase accountability, is proposed. Corporate climate action is increasingly considered important in driving the transition towards a low-carbon economy1. For this, it is critical to ensure translation of global goals to greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets at company level2,3. At the moment, however, there is a lack of clear methods to derive consistent corporate target setting that keeps cumulative corporate GHG emissions within a specific carbon budget (for example, 550–1,300 GtCO2 between 2011 and 2050 for the 2 °C target4). Here we propose a method for corporate emissions target setting that derives carbon intensity pathways for companies based on sectoral pathways from existing mitigation scenarios: the Sectoral Decarbonization Approach (SDA). These company targets take activity growth and initial performance into account. Next to target setting on company level, the SDA can be used by companies, policymakers, investors or other stakeholders as a benchmark for tracking corporate climate performance and actions, providing a mechanism for corporate accountability.

Cite this article

Krabbe, O., Linthorst, G., Blok, K. et al. Aligning corporate greenhouse-gas emissions targets with climate goals. Nature Clim Change 5, 1057–1060 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2770

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