A growing number of the world’s largest companies have set emissions reduction targets for 2030 and a net-zero target by mid-century. And some have released road maps setting out how they think they can achieve these targets. This is a good thing. Corporations are leading sources of greenhouse gas pollution, and what they do will determine the success or failure of global efforts to curb global warming. But it is one thing to announce targets. It is quite another to craft credible green transition plans and to put them into action, as two reports last week showed. Deep and rapid emissions cuts require major changes to business practices, supply chains and transport fleets, and investments in green energy – and in some cases, the technology needed to achieve all this is not yet available or affordable. That said, there’s more work needed to create credible transition plans.

A report by the Transition Pathway Initiative Centre at the London School of Economics said only one in 20 of more than 1,000 listed companies have a detailed plan on achieving their greenhouse gas targets. Only 1 per cent of companies are aligning future capital expenditures with long-term decarbonisation goals. And only 2 per cent of companies have committed to phasing out capital expenditure in carbon-intensive assets or products. The second report by Net Zero Tracker, an independent consortium including Oxford University, said that just over half of the world’s 2,000 biggest listed companies have set a target to get to net-zero emissions by mid-century. However, just 4 per cent of these targets met tough United Nations guidelines on what constitutes a quality pledge. This would mean, for instance, publishing a plan covering all types of greenhouse gas emissions, starting to cut them immediately and including annual progress reports on targets.