SBTi Monitoring Report 2022 shows huge corporate demand for credible, ambitious decarbonization

2022 was a year of pronounced effects from climate change. That far off theoretical future was suddenly very close to home – no matter where your home happened to be.

Floods submerged one third of the entire landmass of Pakistan, causing almost 2,000 deaths, affecting 33 million people and wreaking more than $15bn of economic damage. Heatwaves in Europe during its summer contributed to over 61,000 deaths, with temperatures reaching 47°C. It was one of the hottest years on record, with global mean temperatures up 1.15 degrees.

And we know that things will only get worse. That our children, and our children’s children, face a bleak future if we don’t take immediate action to radically cut emissions.

It is this deep desire to protect the future generations that inspires me to do the work that I do. I believe that companies and financial institutions can make a difference, but that the window for action is closing fast.

I am hugely proud of the fact that, as our 2022 Monitoring Report has found, more companies and financial institutions set science-based targets in 2022 than in the previous seven years combined. I am also pleased to see some companies exerting more pressure on their suppliers, creating a cascade of science-based requirements across the global economy, which in turn is under more and more pressure to decarbonize.

2022 tested the resolve of organizations everywhere. Energy costs, inflation and supply chain snags shaped an extraordinarily challenging operating environment that created false compromises between climate action and bottom line protection. Of course the best way of protecting companies and people long-term remains robust action on climate.

But the operational challenges that year also showed once again the remarkable ingenuity of business and the enduring power of supply chains. It was some of the strongest evidence yet that economies can be rearranged on a macro scale through perseverance, hard work and innovation.

Our work here is only just beginning, but with science guiding the way, perhaps all of that hard work and innovation can go a little further in helping to avoid the very worst effects of climate change.

Find out how to take the next step in your climate action journey here.