10 years on: Why some companies have managed to deliver on climate

Ten years after the Paris Agreement reshaped global ambition, a clear divide has emerged. Some companies are translating climate pledges into measurable progress; others remain trapped in cycles of reporting and rhetoric. Understanding this divide matters more than ever, because the 2020s should not be yet another decade of declarations. We need this decade to be a decisive delivery window for a livable planet.

The freshly published United Nations Environment Programme’s Emissions Gap Report 2025 shows modest but insufficient progress. If fully implemented, countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) would limit warming to 2.3-2.5°C, while current policies would lead to 2.8°C this century, a slight improvement from last year’s 2.6-2.8°C and 3.1°C projections.

Meanwhile, the World Meteorological Organization confirms that the last 12 months were the hottest on record, with weather-related disasters causing more than $360 billion in losses globally in 2023.

Climate change has moved from a sustainability issue to a strategic and financial one. It now shapes credit ratings, insurance premiums and supply-chain resilience. What distinguishes leaders from laggards is not their ambition, but their ability to execute. That means turning policy signals into operational change.

The past decade proved that policy and innovation can shift markets. Clean energy investment surpassed fossil fuels for the first time in 2023, reaching $1.8 trillion globally, according to the IEA. Solar and wind power set new capacity records, and electric vehicles are transforming mobility systems.

But progress, while real, remains partial as the gap is no longer technological, but organizational.

The companies delivering measurable impact share one defining trait: they treat sustainability as a systems challenge, not a communications exercise. They embed environmental and social data directly into the financial and operational systems that guide decisions. Procurement, logistics and finance teams (not only sustainability officers) see real-time climate data and act on it.

This integration makes sustainability auditable and financially material. According to the CDP Global Supply Chain Report 2024, companies embedding environmental data into purchasing decisions reduce supply-chain emissions up to 35% faster than those relying on periodic reporting.

1. They connect carbon to capital
Climate-leading companies now view emissions and nature impacts as cost drivers that affect pricing, procurement and investment decisions. Treating carbon as financial data aligns business logic with planetary boundaries.

2. They build resilient value chains
As climate shocks disrupt agriculture, logistics and energy, companies investing in adaptation are protecting both communities and balance sheets. The World Bank estimates every dollar invested in resilience saves four dollars in avoided losses.

3. They embrace trusted technology
Digital tools now enable unprecedented transparency and traceability, but only when they are underpinned by verified, high-quality data. The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requires companies to prove that products like soy, beef and coffee are deforestation-free, pushing industries towards digitized, traceable supply chains.

Examples from emerging markets show what execution looks like on the ground in the vicinity of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil.

In the country’s Amazon region, Fundação Amazônia Sustentável (FAS) consolidates environmental data from local programmes and Indigenous community initiatives to attract credible landscape finance. By linking real-time data to outcomes, conservation funding becomes both transparent and scalable.

In the industrial sector, Facchini, a major manufacturer of transport equipment, is in the process of integrating sustainability metrics into its operational systems, using efficiency gains and circular materials to reduce both costs and emissions. These examples reveal a larger shift: when climate data becomes business data, decarbonization becomes a process, not a pledge.

The next decade will be defined not by new commitments but by execution capacity. The challenge is to build systems where climate, nature and financial data coexist. They’ll need to be auditable, comparable and actionable across borders.

This is especially urgent in the midst of COP30, where the Amazon and the emerging bioeconomy are taking centre stage. Forests remain one of the most effective near-term levers for reducing warming, but protecting them requires more than declarations. It demands market infrastructure that makes conservation outcomes investable, traceable and beneficial for local communities.

Delivery on this scale requires collaboration among governments, investors and the private sector to:

The world has made remarkable progress since Paris. Renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuels in most regions. In 2022, climate finance surpassed the long-promised $100 billion annual target according to the OECD. Carbon pricing now covers nearly a quarter of global emissions.

These are milestones worth recognizing.

Yet direction does not equal destination. The difference between a 1.5°C world and a 2.5°C world will be determined not by innovation alone, but by whether businesses can integrate sustainability into the systems that run their economies.

The decade since Paris has shown that markets can move faster than expected. The decade ahead will reveal whether they can move far enough.