The world needs to reduce its emissions by 70% a year until 2030 in order to reach the goal of keeping the global temperature increase to 1.5 °C above preindustrial levels, but global emissions have instead grown by 1.5% over the past year. 

These revelations were put forward by consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and subsidiary enterprise sustainability management platform CO2 AI, which jointly released the third edition of the yearly Carbon Emissions Survey for 2023 on November 15. 

"We are not seeing the bend of the curve that is required. We're going in the wrong direction as a global society and we need to change that fast,” BCG MD, senior partner and climate and sustainability global leader Hubertus Meinecke said. 

He said the number of climate disasters had escalated in frequency and severity over the past 40 years, from 832 recorded between 1972 and 1982 to 3 361 recorded between 2013 and 2022.  

In parallel, economic losses linked to these events rose from $235-billion to about $1.77-trillion over the same periods. 

“The urgency is high. Temperatures are going up. We can see it with climate disasters and the amazing cost that's ahead of us. So, it's the number one priority for us as a society, from my perspective, to solve that,” Meinecke said. 

Amid rising climate concerns, most companies surveyed had reportedly not made much progress in measuring and reducing their emissions in the past year. Only a small percentage had reported comprehensively measuring all their emissions, revealing no real improvement relative to the last survey in 2022. 

“Measurement is the first step to change our trajectory, because we truly believe that what is not measured cannot be changed,” Meinecke said. 

The survey polled 1 850 executives responsible for emissions measurement, reporting and reduction in their organisations across 18 major industries and 23 countries. These respondents are collectively responsible for about 40% of global emissions, with a 22% majority of those surveyed being from the industrial goods sector. 

Only about 10% of these respondents were from Africa, with another 10% representing South America. The majority of 27% were from European countries, while another 27% came from Asia-Pacific countries. The Middle East made up 14% of the responses, with North America accounting for the remaining 11%. 

Only 10% of the companies surveyed comprehensively measured and reported on Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, reflecting no change from the 10% measured last year. Meanwhile, only 14% of the respondents had reduced their emissions in line with their ambitions over the past 12 months, a step down from the 17% in 2022. 

“If this trend were to continue, we would never get to 100% of companies measuring the full scope of emissions before 2100," CO2 AI CEO and founder Charlotte Degot said. 

When asked what the primary challenges were that were standing in the way of companies achieving their emissions reduction targets over the past year, 42% quoted macroeconomic conditions as “major” to “extremely significant”, with capital constraints and immature abatement technology coming in second and third, respectively. 

“Macroeconomic conditions have been making them prioritise business-as-usual activities, making it hard to focus on longer term priorities. Capital constraints come as a consequence of macroeconomic conditions and budgets,” Degot said. 

On the upside, BCG X MD, partner and climate and sustainability data and digital solutions expert Diana Dimitrova said there had been an eight percentage point increase in Scope 2 reporting over last year, from 65% to 73%, while Scope 3 reporting had risen by nine percentage points, from 44% in 2022 to 53%. Scope 1 reporting levels remained the same at 72% year-on-year. 

“This is fantastic, because now that organisations know where those emissions are, they can start to take action. Not only are they measuring their Scope 3, but they're actually setting targets, and that's really important because it's a bit of putting your money where your mouth is,” she said. 

Scope 3 target-setting increased by 6 percentage points year-on-year, from 29% to 35% of companies surveyed, with the health care and industrial goods industries leading the way with 44% and 42%, respectively, having set Scope 3 targets. 

“There is a thesis there that says organisations are being more selective of what they measure, especially within Scope 3, but they are setting targets against that. So they're starting to marry the specificity that they need about their emissions to targets they have, that then they will put into reduction action,” Dimitrov said. 

In terms of regional reporting statistics, Africa trailed behind the other surveyed regions in every category. Only 4% of African companies reported fully on Scopes 1, 2 and 3, compared with 13% in Asia-Pacific, against a global average of 10%.  

With regard to only Scope 1 and 2 emissions reporting, 19% of African companies came to the party, compared with 26% in South America, against a 23% global average. In the Scope 3 reporting category, 49% of African companies played their part, compared with 57% in South America, against a global average of 53%. 

Overall, it was recorded that companies are broadly recognising the business benefits of decarbonisation, with improved reputation (51%) and lower operating costs (50%) being the most widely recognised benefits. 

It was noted that digital technology solutions were critical to ensuring more comprehensive measurement and reduction of emissions across all industries globally. 

Degot said companies were two-and-a-half times more likely to comprehensively measure emissions if they used automated digital solutions, with technology adoption and use being ranked as the leading strategic enabler for emissions reduction. 

Going forward, artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to play an increasingly important role in emissions management, with 30% of those surveyed having plans to expand the deployment of AI-powered tools in the next three years across a variety of functions.