Companies globally continued to increase the ambitions of their climate goals in 2024, despite policy headwinds, with a substantial increase in the year of listed companies with validated science-based emission reduction goals, and a continued decoupling in the correlation between revenue and GHG emissions growth, according to a new study released by investment data and research provider MSCI.

For the report, the latest edition of the MSCI Transition Finance Tracker (re-named from the Net-Zero Tracker), MSCI assessed the climate change progress of companies within the MSCI All Country World Investable Market Index (ACWI IMI), and included data from its “Implied Temperature Rise” metric, across key themes including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, corporate targets, disclosure, financial flows, the energy transition, and physical risk and nature.

The report found that as of March 2025, 60.1% of companies have published climate commitments, rising sharply from around 28% five years earlier, but remaining flat over 2024’s 60%. While the pace of commitment setting has slowed, the report found a sharp increase in ambition within companies’ climate goals, with the proportion of listed companies with a Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) validated target rising to 14.2% in 2025, up from only 9.3% in the prior year. Additionally, the proportion of companies with companywide net zero targets continued to climb, reaching 29.3% in 2025, up slightly from 28.9% a year earlier, and from only 4.5% in 2020.

By sector, the report found that industrials had the highest share of SBTi-validated targets, at 21.5% of companies, followed by consumer discretionary at 15.5% and information technology at 13.9%, while the utilities sector had only 3%, and 0% of energy companies, as the SBTi does not currently validate targets from oil and gas companies.

The report also indicated that companies have succeeded in decoupling growth from emissions, particularly in developed markets, where revenue of listed companies has increased by nearly 50% between 2015 and 2023, while those companies’ emissions declined by almost 25% over the same period. While emissions growth for emerging market companies roughly matched revenue growth from 2015 to 2020, revenues outpaced emissions after this period, and emissions declined in 2023 while revenues continued to increase.

By region, direct Scope 1 emissions of listed companies in the U.S., Japan, Germany and UK fell from 2015 to 2023, with the U.S. among the strongest performers with a 10% decline, according to the report. By contrast, emissions by listed companies in China nearly doubled over the period, reflecting growth in industrial activity, while India increased as well.

While the report revealed progress in climate target setting and emissions reduction by companies, it also indicated that most companies are not yet aligned with global climate goals. According to data from MSCI’s Implied Temperature Rise, the report found that only 12% of companies are currently aligned with limiting average global temperature rise to 1.5°C, and an additional 27% are aligned with warming between 1.5°C and 2°C, while the median alignment of companies is with 2.7°C.

By country, companies in Germany were found to align with the lowest temperature rise, at 2°C, followed by France and the UK at 2.3°C each, while Saudi Arabia tops the list at 6.4°C, followed by China at 3.3°C.

Click here to access the report.