CDP Health Check Finds Only One in Ten Companies Embedding Earth-Positive Decisions

CDP's inaugural Corporate Health Check, produced in partnership with Oliver Wyman, finds that only one in ten large corporations are embedding Earth-positive decision-making into their business models, while just one in three businesses are on track to achieve their emissions reduction targets. The report, developed in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research, warns that climate inaction could reduce global GDP by 18% by 2050.

The Corporate Health Check quantifies how effectively large corporations are integrating environmental considerations into business strategy, drawing on CDP disclosure data from major companies globally. Companies making the most progress are those that link executive pay to climate goals and effectively deploy governance and strategy levers. The inaugural report was presented at the 2025 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, signalling the integration of corporate environmental performance into mainstream economic discourse at the highest level.

Despite low overall rates of Earth-positive decision-making, the report finds that companies demonstrating progress on climate targets experienced a similar pace of market capitalisation growth since 2022 — approximately 10% — compared to companies not on track with their targets. This challenges the binary assumption that environmental ambition and financial performance are in tension. CDP notes that the trailblazers of today must maintain ambition, as the rapidly changing external environment does not guarantee sustained competitive advantage from current sustainability leadership.

The Health Check includes new regional and country profiles enabling sector- and geography-level analysis of corporate environmental progress. CDP and the World Economic Forum's 'State of Nature and Climate' initiative, which combines planetary health data with corporate action data from CDP and the Potsdam Institute, underpins the indicator framework used in the assessment. CDP is calling on policymakers to provide support and incentives for Earth-positive businesses to accelerate the transition, while encouraging companies currently outside the frontrunner group to follow the lead of Health Check leaders.

Key figure — Only 1 in 10 companies embedding Earth-positive decision-making into their business models