Corporate Climate Responsibility

The Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor (v5.0) establishes a framework to distinguish genuine corporate climate leadership from greenwashing. It assesses companies across four pillars: comprehensive GHG emissions disclosure (Scopes 1, 2, and 3), the alignment of emission reduction targets with 1.5°C pathways, the implementation of sector-specific transitions, and the scaling of durable carbon dioxide removals (CDR). The guidance emphasizes that net-zero claims are misleading without deep absolute reductions and argues against the use of standalone Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and traditional offsetting in favor of 'climate contributions' and millennial-scale durable CDR.

• High-integrity emissions disclosure requires annual reporting of full greenhouse gas emissions, broken down by specific sources, with historical data for at least the last five years and the target base year.
• Credible short-term emission reduction targets must be set in maximum five-year intervals and align with 1.5°C-compatible benchmarks to ensure immediate action and accountability.
• Net-zero targets are considered misleading if they do not commit to deep absolute emission reductions—at least 90% below 2019 levels for most sectors (or 72% for agriculture)—independent of offsetting and carbon dioxide removals.
• The guidance identifies 'climate contributions' (Beyond Value Chain Mitigation) as a superior alternative to offsetting, where companies provide financial support for climate action without claiming to neutralise their own emissions.
• The document recommends an internal carbon fee of at least USD 100 per tCO2e for climate contributions, tending toward the social cost of carbon to create effective incentives for internal reductions.
• Traditional offsetting is deemed fundamentally flawed due to risks of distracting from immediate reductions, double counting, and the lack of 'high-hanging fruit' projects that are truly additional in the Paris Agreement era.
• Only 'durable CDR'—defined as storage exceeding 1,000 years—is considered suitable for neutralising fossil fuel emissions, while land-based sequestration is viewed as non-durable and insufficient for this purpose.
• Standalone Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are classified as having a low likelihood of contributing to additional renewable capacity and are not considered a suitable approach for reducing electricity-related emissions.
• Hourly matching (24/7 matching) of electricity consumption with renewable generation is promoted as the high-integrity standard for Scope 2 reporting to drive real-time displacement of fossil fuels.
• The use of bioenergy is cautioned against unless it is a temporary solution in sectors with limited electrification options and is proven to have no negative sustainability implications for food security, biodiversity, or water resources.

APA

Day, T., Hans, F., Mooldijk, S., Smit, S., de Grandpré, J., Fraser, E., Salsabila, N. P., Straub, S., & Gillod, A. (2025). Corporate Climate Responsibility. Carbon Market Watch. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/NewClimate_CCRM2025_Methodology.pdf

Chicago

Day, Thomas, Frederic Hans, Silke Mooldijk, Sybrig Smit, Juliette de Grandpré, Eve Fraser, Nabila Putri Salsabila, Saskia Straub, and Antoine Gillod. Corporate Climate Responsibility. Carbon Market Watch, 2025. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/NewClimate_CCRM2025_Methodology.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{day2025corporate, author = {Day, Thomas and Hans, Frederic and Mooldijk, Silke and Smit, Sybrig and de Grandpré, Juliette and Fraser, Eve and Salsabila, Nabila Putri and Straub, Saskia and Gillod, Antoine}, title = {{Corporate Climate Responsibility}}, institution = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2025}, month = jun, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/NewClimate_CCRM2025_Methodology.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }