SBTi Urges Continued Corporate Action After Record-Breaking Climate Year

The Science Based Targets initiative called for sustained corporate decarbonisation momentum following a year in which 2023 was confirmed as the hottest on record by a clear margin, according to the World Meteorological Organization. The SBTi's 2023 monitoring report showed more corporations, financial institutions and small and medium enterprises setting science-based targets than in any prior year.

The World Meteorological Organization's State of Global Climate report documented record ocean heat, sea level rise and glacier retreat in 2023. On an average day, nearly one third of the global ocean was in a marine heatwave state. Amazon waterway droughts displaced up to half a million indigenous people, and scientists estimated that Mediterranean summer floods in Greece, Turkey and Libya were made up to 50 times more likely by climate change. The UN warned that the world is more likely than not to breach the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit by 2027.

Against this backdrop, the SBTi cited positive indicators including the COP28 outcome, which made an unprecedented call to transition away from fossil fuels, and the UN adoption of the world's first treaty to protect the high seas and preserve marine biodiversity. The SBTi described corporate science-based target setting as a primary mechanism for private-sector decarbonisation, noting that company-level action cascades through global supply chains via scope 3 engagement, creating systemic pressure for change well beyond the individual target-setting company.

The SBTi framed its 2023 work as part of a broader effort to retain agency and pursue what it described as radical change in thought and action. The organisation called on companies to engage with its standards not as a compliance exercise but as a means of measurable contribution to the 1.5 degree goal. For Indian corporates, the 2023 climate data reinforces the business case for early action, as physical climate risks to Indian agriculture, infrastructure and financial systems intensify in line with projected warming trajectories.

Key figure — 2023 confirmed as hottest year on record; UN warns 1.5°C limit likely breached by 2027