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* Climate Action 100+ issues first progress report
* Finds no company is aligned with Paris climate goal
* Only six have aligned capex with long-term targets
By Simon Jessop and Elizabeth Howcroft
LONDON, March 22 (Reuters) - The world's biggest
carbon-emitting companies are far from aligning with the Paris
Climate Agreement, a report by the leading climate-focused
investor group showed on Monday.
Climate Action 100+, whose 575 members manage $54 trillion
in assets, was set up in 2017 to engage with the companies
responsible for the bulk of planet-heating emissions to
encourage them to cut them and strengthen climate disclosures.
If added together and treated as a country, the companies -
including oil majors like Exxon, Saudi Aramco and BP
as well as Unilever - would be the third biggest
emitter behind the United States and China, the group said.
Releasing its first 'Climate Action 100+ Net-Zero Company
Benchmark', the group uses a traffic-light system to show how
each of the 159 companies is currently performing on a variety
of indicators and metrics.
None of the companies have fully disclosed how they will
achieve their goals to become a net zero business by 2050 or
sooner, the assessment shows, including setting short- and
medium-term targets.
Irked by the slow pace of change at some companies, leading
investors have thrown their weight behind shareholder
resolutions in the current season for annual general meetings
demanding better information on company plans.
"The Climate Action 100+ Net Zero Company Benchmark shows
there is an urgent need for greater corporate action and higher
ambition in accelerating the net zero economy and ensuring a
safe and viable future," said Mindy Lubber, president of CA100+
who also runs sustainability organisation Ceres.
REDUCTION TARGETS
Although 83 of the companies assessed have announced an aim
of achieving net-zero by 2050, around half of these commitments
do not encompass the full scope of their emissions.
While 107 companies had set medium-term targets, only 20 met
all the assessment criteria; of the 75 to set short-term
targets, only eight did so.
Only six companies had committed to aligning their capital
expenditure with their long-term reduction targets, and none
have so far pledged to align them with the Paris Agreement goal
of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
When scenario planning for the risks and opportunities posed
by climate change, just 10% of the companies include the 1.5
degrees scenario across the whole of their operations.
Although 139 companies consider climate change at board
level, only a third of those assessed explicitly link executive
pay to their targets for reducing emissions.
The assessment, based on companies' public disclosures and
any additional information they provided before Jan. 22, will
form the base line for future engagement with them, CA100+ said.
"This is a vitally important piece of work. We will be using
it not only to inform our engagement but also our proxy voting,
because for us, ultimately, we have to be able to hold boards
accountable," said Anne Simpson, managing investment director of
board governance and sustainability at the California Public
Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS).
(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
