Paris Agreement: Why some companies are making progress on their climate goals and others are not

Ten years after the Paris Agreement redefined global ambition, a clear divide has emerged. Some companies are translating their climate commitments into measurable progress; others are still trapped in cycles of reporting and rhetoric. Understanding this divide is more important than ever, because the 2020s must not be just another decade of statements. We need this decade to be a decisive period for achieving a livable planet. The United Nations Environment Programme’s just-released 2025 Emissions Gap Report 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 a 2.8°C increase this century. This is a slight improvement from last year’s projections of 2.6-2.8°C and 3.1°C. Meanwhile, the World Meteorological Organization confirms that the last 12 months have been the hottest ever recorded. Climate-related disasters caused losses worth more than $360 billion worldwide in 2023. Climate change has gone from being a sustainability issue to a strategic and financial issue. It has become a factor already influencing 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 political signals into operational changes. The last decade has shown that policy and innovation can change markets. Clean energy investment surpassed fossil fuel investment for the first time in 2023, reaching $1.8 trillion globally, according to the IEA. Solar and wind power have broken 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. Companies that achieve measurable impacts share a distinctive characteristic: they treat sustainability as a systemic challenge, not a communication exercise. They incorporate environmental and social data directly into the financial and operational systems that guide their decisions. Procurement, logistics, and finance teams – not just sustainability leaders – see climate data in real-time and act accordingly. This integration makes sustainability auditable and financially important. According to CDP’s 2024 Global Supply Chain Report, companies that incorporate environmental data into their purchasing decisions reduce supply chain emissions up to 35% faster than those that act on regular reporting alone.

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