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Foreword

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, US Business Editor, Financial Times

The business headlines of 1992 were not particularly concerned with what the companies of the day would be doing 29 years later, but in 2021 we are intensely preoccupied with 2050.

That is the year, the scientific community has concluded, by which our economies must have stopped emitting more greenhouse gases than they are removing from the atmosphere if global warming is to be kept within 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

That distant deadline may have been set by scientists but it has spurred an urgent rethinking by executives, investors, regulators and standard-setters. On the eve of the UN’s COP26 conference in Glasgow, companies across industries are scrambling to set out their plans to reach the “net zero” target on time.

Counting to zero is proving surprisingly challenging, however. Look closely at some of those pledges and it is far from clear what boards intend to do in the near term to begin that long journey to 2050.

As Sarah Murray explains in this, our fourth Moral Money Forum report, the pressure is growing for businesses to do better: to set interim targets, to make sure their goals are aligned with the scientific guidance and to report transparently on their progress.

The business case for doing so is also growing stronger, Sarah shows. Those that lead the race to net zero can expect to be rewarded by consumers, employees, regulators and investors, who have lost patience with corporate greenwashing.

As for the laggards — those that worry about the potential costs of preparing their businesses for a future that current executives may not be around to see — they should pause to remember that a lot can change in 29 years. The most valuable companies of 1992 were Philip Morris, ExxonMobil and Walmart. All three have since been bumped down the league tables by such future-focused brands as Apple, Microsoft and Amazon.