Corporate Commitments and Emissions Explorer Technical Documentation

The Corporate Commitments and Emissions Explorer uses a formula-based approach to estimate corporate emissions trajectories, incorporating revenue growth, climate targets, and sectoral intensities. It offers five preset outlooks—Current, Climate-Aligned Action, Herd Catches Leaders, Laggards Catch Herd, and No Further Action—to simulate different levels of corporate ambition. The tool focuses on Scope 1 and 2 emissions, utilizing data from CDP and the Net Zero Tracker, while excluding Scope 3 emissions due to data quality and double-counting risks. Companies are categorized as ambitious, somewhat ambitious, or least ambitious based on their disclosure habits, emission intensities, and the nature of their climate commitments.

• The Explorer utilizes five preset outlooks to generate emission pathway scenarios: 'Current Outlook' applies existing public commitments; 'Climate-Aligned Action' assumes a 2050 net-zero target and a 50% reduction by 2030; 'Herd Catches Leaders' simulates laggards ramping intensity down to the minimum; 'Laggards Catch Herd' applies net-zero by 2050 to companies without public commitments; and 'No Further Action' assumes no action beyond currently published targets.
• Emission estimations are calculated using a baseline formula that multiplies start year emissions (2022) by revenue growth, which can be further modified by multipliers for end targets, interim targets, partial target achievement, and carbon offsets.
• Start year emissions for 2022 are sourced from CDP disclosures; for companies that do not disclose to CDP, emissions are estimated by multiplying the company's revenue by the minimum, median, or maximum emission intensity for its respective sector.
• The tool exclusively includes Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions measured in MTCO2e, intentionally omitting Scope 3, supply chain, embodied, or lifecycle emissions because of low data quality and consistency and the high risk of double counting.
• Companies are classified into three ambition levels: 'ambitious' (disclose to CDP, below median intensity, include Scope 3, and have zero emissions targets), 'somewhat ambitious' (e.g., disclose to CDP with above-median intensity but have long-term commitments), and 'least ambitious' (no long-term commitments and either do not disclose to CDP or have above-median intensity).

APA

RMI (2023). Corporate Commitments and Emissions Explorer Technical Documentation. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2023/07/documentation_for_corporate_commitments_and_emissions_explorer.pdf

Chicago

RMI. Corporate Commitments and Emissions Explorer Technical Documentation. 2023. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2023/07/documentation_for_corporate_commitments_and_emissions_explorer.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Corporate Commitments and Emissions Explorer Technical Documentation |date=13 July 2023 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2023/07/documentation_for_corporate_commitments_and_emissions_explorer.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2023corporate, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Corporate Commitments and Emissions Explorer Technical Documentation}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2023}, month = jul, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2023/07/documentation_for_corporate_commitments_and_emissions_explorer.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }