As more businesses set science-based targets and limit global warming to 1.5 ° C, sustainability initiatives recently marked three important milestones.

The headlines are full of record air and ocean temperatures, floods and droughts, and the human and economic costs of the growing climate crisis. As time passes, it becomes clearer: We need to decarbonize rapidly across the private sector. Science-based targets enable the private sector to respond.

The number of companies and financial institutions setting science-based emission reduction targets has roughly doubled each year, as the Science-based Targets Initiative has validated the first target. A growing number of businesses using the intersectoral approach of the STI Initiative, or a growing number of sectoral resources, are setting science-based targets to limit global warming to 1.5 ° C. As the Indian Broadcasting Corporation continues its transformation into an independent entity, it recently marked three important milestones.

1,000 Japanese companies have goals

Science-based goals are becoming the norm in many countries, especially in Asia. As reported by the UNFCCC's SBSTA monitoring report, Japan is the country with the highest number of companies setting targets for 2022, currently accounting for about one-fifth of all targets identified by standardized technical indicators.

Japanese companies in 46 different industries have identified more than 1,000 proven targets. Electrical equipment and machinery companies led the charge, followed by construction and engineering firms, trading companies and distributors, business services and supplies, and motor vehicles and parts.

Japan is an important part of the upstream value chain in Asia, which indicates that a ripple effect is about to occur through supplier participation and Scope 3 targets. As a major supplier and exporter, Japan's science-based climate action can have an impact on the entire global economy. As Japanese companies continue to set record numbers of science-based targets, we expect the entire region to continue to be the fastest growing in the world.

100 financial institutions

In 2018, the Sustainability Initiative launched a project to develop goal-setting guidelines for the financial sector. Following a transparent and sound development process, the initiative launched science-based target guidance for the financial sector in October 2021. Now, the targets of more than 100 financial institutions have been confirmed by the Brazilian Institute of Finance, and more than 200 more have pledged to do the same in the near future.

As outlined in the Paris Agreement, financial information systems have a unique opportunity and responsibility to support the transition to a net zero global economy. However, much of the potential of the financial sector to use investment and insurance activities to support the decarbonization of all sectors of the economy remains unrealized. The Science, Technology and Innovation Initiative therefore commends the first batch of 100 financial information systems to validate its goals and invites financial information systems around the world to join its growing band of ambitious peers in setting scientific goals for their businesses and portfolios with the latest climate science.

800 zero goals

First released in 2021, the Company Net Zero Standard provides a common, scientific zero knowledge. It gives business leaders clarity and confidence that their immediate and long-term decarbonisation plans are consistent with climate science. In just over two years, more than 800 companies around the world have set science-based net zero goals through the sbti. With more than 3,000 additional companies committing to set a net zero goal in the near future, the sbti is helping usher in a new era of long-term private sector efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 ° C.

A small number of updates have recently been released to bring the Net Zero standard more in line with the initiative's growing catalog of resources. It is available now, while also updating the Enterprise Zero netting tool to allow companies to align their near-term and long-term goals with the standard.