Major firms demonstrate business benefits of climate leadership

A small group of major businesses is demonstrating how environmental leadership can deliver significant benefits.

A study found that that the 15% of companies worldwide that are now embedding climate and nature into core business decisions are cutting emissions at four times the rate of their peers.

Collectively they unlocked around £162bn billion in financial opportunities in the last 12 months. They reduced emissions at an average compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4%, compared with just 1% among lower-performing companies, according to the report from the CDP.

The report found Japan is the best performing country with 22% of companies achieving leadership status on climate, ahead of the UK (17%), EU (16%), and India (11%).

Sherry Madera, Chief Executive Officer at CDP said: “Earth-positive is no longer peripheral to business strategy; it is becoming a core driver of long-term competitiveness. The challenge now is scale – making this the norm rather than exception.”