82% of companies are maintaining or accelerating climate targets
The third edition of the PwC State of Decarbonization study analyzed data from 3,547 companies across sectors and regions. Despite the narrative that sustainability is yielding to political pressure, the overwhelming majority of companies are keeping their climate commitments.
1) Targets are not changing, they are tightening – 82% of companies have maintained or accelerated climate commitments (vs. 84% the previous year)
New targets are indeed emerging more slowly (+7% YoY), but they are stricter – the majority of companies now set targets validated by the SBTi. Only 18% of companies have weakened their targets
2) Scope 1+2 – 69% of companies are on the right trajectory. Global investment in industrial energy efficiency has risen since 2020 by 45% to ~30 billion USD. But threats are mounting: rising AI/data‑center consumption, proposed changes to the GHG Protocol for Scope 2, and a 19% decline in PPA contracts in the US and Europe by 2025.
3) Scope 3 – shift into the supply chain:
- 56% of companies are on the right trajectory (vs. 50% in 2023)
- 75% of Fortune 500 companies have visibility into suppliers beyond tier 1 (vs. 50% in 2023)
- 64% of companies have structured decarbonisation programs for suppliers (vs. 35% in 2023)
- 76 % set requirements for supplier decarbonization (vs. 51 % in 2023)
- Scope 3 emissions reporting expanded by 30 % YoY
4) Decarbonization is democratizing: The median revenue of companies setting new Scope 1+2 targets fell from $4.1 bn (2020) to $1.1 bn (2025) – smaller firms are joining, driven by the demands of large customers.
5) AI in sustainability: so far more hype than results. 60 % of companies state that they use AI for decarbonization, but less than 1 % quantify the actual emission reductions thanks to AI. Only 14 % of companies report using AI to improve emission reporting.
PwC research shows that decarbonization is shifting from own operations to the supply chain. For smaller firms this is a double‑edged sword: on one hand opportunities are increasing, on the other hand pressure from customers demanding data, targets and concrete actions is growing.
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