CCH Tagetik Director Urges Companies to Recalibrate Climate Targets After Widespread Misses

Almost 40% of companies missed their 2020 climate targets or stopped reporting entirely, according to a 2025 Nature Climate Change study cited by Maria Grazia Cafagna, Director of ESG and Regulatory Solutions at CCH Tagetik, Wolters Kluwer. Cafagna argues that the next generation of climate goals must be financially grounded, resource-backed, and integrated into core business strategy rather than driven by external compliance pressure.

Cafagna identifies multiple reasons for widespread target failure: regulatory uncertainty from anti-ESG legislation in U.S. states; the complexity of Scope 3 emissions accounting; slower-than-expected technological progress; and economic pressures that have frequently outweighed transition investment. She argues that initial targets were too often set in response to public sentiment or investor pressure rather than based on operational feasibility or financial investment modelling — a practice that has left many organisations with paper-based ambitions disconnected from operational reality.

The next generation of climate targets, Cafagna argues, should directly connect emissions reduction goals to business objectives such as improved energy efficiency, supply chain optimisation, new product development, and cost reduction. She recommends that targets be set with explicit assessment of data infrastructure, talent, cross-functional governance, and capital requirements needed to achieve each milestone. She also calls for meaningful CFO involvement in sustainability target-setting, which organisations including PwC and KPMG have identified as a best practice.

The article argues that missed targets represent an opportunity to recalibrate rather than a permanent failure, encouraging companies to move beyond ambiguous long-term pledges toward specific, financially anchored commitments with clear accountability. As SEBI's BRSR framework and India's domestic ESG disclosure requirements mature, the challenge of ensuring that sustainability commitments are operationally funded and strategically embedded — rather than purely aspirational — is equally relevant for India's listed companies.

Key figure — Almost 40% of companies missed their 2020 climate targets or stopped reporting, per 2025 Nature Climate Change study