This report utilized a number of data sources, including public and private CDP disclosure data, information retrieved from company sustainability reports and websites, other publicly available data related to global emissions figures and market capitalization, and data collected by the SBTi.

In 2015, world governments adopted the momentous Paris Agreement at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21). Together they made a commitment to avoid the worst impacts of climate change by limiting global temperature rise to well below 2°C, with efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C.

In the same year, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) was founded to mobilize the private sector to set emissions reduction targets in line with climate science and play their part in accelerating this era-defining global effort.

Five years on there has been a surge in corporate climate ambition, with SBTi companies leading the way. Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, adoption of science-based targets continued to accelerate in 2020. We are now approaching a critical mass of companies setting science-based targets in many sectors and geographies.

Furthermore, companies with science-based targets have delivered emissions reductions in the real economy at scale: we now have evidence that companies’ science-based ambition is backed up by real emissions reductions.