Despite a growth in climate and ESG regulation around the world, private companies are falling far behind publicly listed companies in addressing net zero. One thing we can’t afford is for companies to be operating in the shadows as the global economy evolves.
Together, the 50 private firms operating without targets collectively have annual revenues of $1.8 trillion. While publicly listed companies are expected to respond to new regulations through their statutory reporting, private companies have no such process holding them to account.
Much new climate regulation is however designed to stimulate ‘whole economy’ decarbonisation. As Lang points out: “New measures being introduced in regions from the EU, to the US and Singapore — some with extra-territorial dimensions, are changing the rules of the game. What goes on in the EU does not stay in the EU. And what goes on in a regulated public company will not stay in a public company: one company’s indirect emissions are another's direct emissions.