Today at Climate Week NYC, the Net Zero Tracker publishes the Net Zero Stocktake 2025, its latest iteration of an annual assessment that reviews both the quantity and quality of net-zero commitments.
This year’s Stocktake finds that despite the US federal government’s retrenchment on climate action, 77% of global GDP is still covered by national net-zero commitments. The number of US companies with net-zero targets has risen by 9% in the last year. These companies now represent $12 trillion in global annual revenue, which amounts to 64% of the revenue of the companies assessed in the Stocktake.
A majority of the largest listed companies in the Global Forbes 2000 have net-zero targets, and most of these companies have plans to achieve them. Target-setting continues to increase in Asia, notably in China, India , Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
However, though the number of commitments is increasing around the world, the quality of those commitments continues to lag. The vast majority of companies assessed in the Stocktake still need to improve their commitments to ensure they meet best-practice standards. It is also the case that country-level coverage of net-zero targets has decreased since the US walked back its commitments. Almost half of subnational governments and companies assessed still have no public emissions reductions target.
Dr Steve Smith, Executive Director of Oxford Net Zero, said:
“This is 2025. If a major company, city or state still has no target or plan for being part of a climate-safe future, you have to ask if they are risking their own economic and environmental opportunities, as well as the world’s.”
Thomas Hale, Professor of Global Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and Oxford Net Zero Co-Investigator, said:
“U.S. companies know they need to keep pace with the EU, China and other regions where climate policy is increasingly shaping competitiveness. Net zero is less a political battleground and more a race to secure future markets, investment and jobs.”
Read more and download the report on the Net Zero Tracker website.
The Net Zero Tracker is a collaboration between Oxford Net Zero, the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), the Data-Driven EnviroLab and the NewClimate Institute.
