New York – September 18^th, 2023– Following the publication of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Global Stocktake Synthesis Report, the report card on progress against the Paris Agreement, We Mean Business Coalition and Bain & Company are calling on businesses to take part in a supporting process—The Corporate Climate Stocktake—to shape UN climate negotiations.

The first UNFCCC Global Stocktake represents a critical moment to course correct and accelerate climate action where it is most needed. In contrast to the Global Stocktake, which focusses on country-level emissions, the Corporate Climate Stocktake examines the pace of clean energy adoption within economic sectors.

“As extreme weather continues to sweep across the globe, the impacts of climate change have become immediate to people across geographies and income levels,” said Katherine Dixon, partner at Bain & Company. “People are looking to business to do the right thing, but the reality is the ambition of individual companies often runs counter to market incentives. What we’re seeing is market failure. This stocktake is an opportunity for businesses to demonstrate the progress they are making to cut emissions as well as to share the barriers that must be dismantled to accelerate investment and action.”  

The Corporate Climate Stocktake will be the most ambitious, forward-looking review to date of private sector progress and obstacles around net zero, including input from 300 of the world’s largest emitters and an evidence-based analysis of eight key transition sectors that together account for more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions.

“More than 13,000 business, large and small are now committed to cutting their emissions at the pace that science says is necessary to prevent runaway climate change. That is an incredible achievement in the seven years since the Paris Agreement was signed,” said  María Mendiluce of the We Mean Business Coalition. “Yet when I meet with business leaders, I hear their desire to accelerate and a frustration that more is not being done to remove the barriers to scaling up clean solutions in their sectors and value chains. As we take stock of progress, we need to hear more directly from the people at the forefront of driving the transition, and that means industry leaders. That is what the Corporate Climate Stocktake will deliver.”

When incentives align, we have seen how fast the energy transition can go. Over the past decade, the deployment of wind, solar, heat pumps, and battery technologies have confounded all forecasts. Solar generation capacity has been doubling every two to three years since 2000, sales of electric vehicles reach new highs each year, and heat pumps are on an exponential growth curve. These are among the emerging insights of the Corporate Climate Stocktake, which will be published in full ahead of COP28.

Companies interested in making their voices heard on the progress and obstacles faced by their industry in the energy transition are invited to contact the project team at stocktake@wmbcoalition.org. 

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Editor's Note: For more information or interview requests please contact Katie Ware at katie.ware@bain.com or +1 646 562 8107.

Or Pascale Palmer at ppalmer@wmbcoalition.org or +44 7432 533 080 

About We Mean Business Coalition

We Mean Business Coalition works with the world’s most influential businesses to take action on climate change. The Coalition is a group of seven nonprofit organizations: BSR, CDP, Ceres, Climate Group, CLG Europe, The B Team and WBCSD. Together, we catalyze business and policy action to halve emissions by 2030 and accelerate an inclusive transition to a net-zero economy. Find out more at wemeanbusinesscoalition.org

About Bain & Company 

Bain & Company is a global consultancy that helps the world’s most ambitious change makers define the future. 

Across 65 cities in 40 countries, we work alongside our clients as one team with a shared ambition to achieve extraordinary results, outperform the competition, and redefine industries. We complement our tailored, integrated expertise with a vibrant ecosystem of digital innovators to deliver better, faster, and more enduring outcomes. Our 10-year commitment to invest more than $1 billion in pro bono services brings our talent, expertise, and insight to organizations tackling today’s urgent challenges in education, racial equity, social justice, economic development, and the environment. We earned a platinum rating from EcoVadis, the leading platform for environmental, social, and ethical performance ratings for global supply chains, putting us in the top 1% of all companies. Since our founding in 1973, we have measured our success by the success of our clients, and we proudly maintain the highest level of client advocacy in the industry.