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Increased transparency is needed for corporate science-based targets to be effective

Nature Climate Change volume 13, pages 756–759 (2023)Cite this article

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Companies rarely disclose underlying calculations for their science-based emission reduction targets and the targets themselves lack important details. Increased transparency is necessary to assess justice implications, evaluate the sufficiency of aggregate emission reductions and hold companies accountable for actions on their targets.

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Fig. 1: Timeframes and targeted emission reductions.

Data availability

This study is based on a pre-existing dataset (https://sciencebasedtargets.org/companies-taking-action). The specific data compiled for Fig. 1 are available in the Supplementary Table.

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Acknowledgements

We thank N. Foster, undergraduate student at Concordia University, for extracting the data for Fig. 1 from SBTi’s dataset. This research was funded by Købmand Niels Erik Munk Pedersen Fonden (A.B.) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada (M.H.).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Absolute Sustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Anders Bjørn

  2. Section for Quantitative Sustainability Assessment, Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Anders Bjørn

  3. Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

    H. Damon Matthews & Maida Hadziosmanovic

  4. Institut de Recherche en Génie Civil et Mécanique, Nantes Université, École Centrale de Nantes, Nantes, France

    Nicolas Desmoitier

  5. Department of Finance, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

    Amr Addas

  6. Department of Management, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

    Shannon M. Lloyd

Authors
  1. Anders Bjørn
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  2. H. Damon Matthews
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  3. Maida Hadziosmanovic
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  4. Nicolas Desmoitier
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  5. Amr Addas
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  6. Shannon M. Lloyd
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anders Bjørn.

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Competing interests

A.B. is a remunerated member of the Technical Council of the Science Based Targets initiative. The other authors declare no competing interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Table

Spreadsheet containing the data to compile Fig. 1.

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Bjørn, A., Matthews, H.D., Hadziosmanovic, M. et al. Increased transparency is needed for corporate science-based targets to be effective. Nat. Clim. Chang. 13, 756–759 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01727-z

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