WITH THE 2015 PARIS AGREEMENT, governments the world over made a commitment to limiting global temperature increases. Then in 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that global warming must not exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures to avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change. To achieve this, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must halve by 2030 and drop to net zero by 2050.
Business has a vital role to play in building a zero-emission economy. To empower peer companies, suppliers and customers to follow suit, we need a race to the top, led by pioneering companies. And science-based targets are a critical part of the solution.
In the realm of business, it is widely accepted that targets should be both and . However, the role of internal performance standards (e.g., prior year performance, internal budgets) versus external performance standards (e.g., thresholds prescribed by experts and regulators) in setting optimal targets is less understood. As with most things in life, there are trade-offs to be made. Although internal standards allow managers to retain some influence over the targets their company sets, embracing
