The devastating effects of climate change are being felt across the world. It is becoming increasingly clear that the world is not transitioning fast enough to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. It’s not too late to make a difference, but it’s certainly becoming a lot more challenging.
- We need to transition to a green economy as quickly and as fully as possible. This transition has been at the top of the climate agenda for years, but has not been materialising at the necessary scale and speed. As a result,climate conditions have deteriorated further and we also now urgently need to adapt and build resilience against the devastating impacts we are seeing more and more frequently.
- We encourage all organisations to place an urgent focus on adapting and supporting acceleration in the transition. Governments and businesses need to work together to produce a coordinated policy response that solves the collective action problem.
- PwC’s global environment strategy remains focused on two interconnected agendas: mitigation – the global push to reduce our impact on the environment as quickly as possible; and adaptation – building resilience against impacts already being experienced and the further expected deterioration. Some highlights of how we are executing on that strategy are below.
- We are decarbonising what we can now. We have a worldwide commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with near-term science-based 2030 goals. We have reduced our scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 71% from a FY19 baseline, sourced 95% renewable electricity for the PwC network, and reduced our scope 3 business travel emissions by 43% from a FY19 baseline. Also this year, 24% of our purchased goods and services (PG&S) suppliers (by emissions) had Science-Based Targets (SBTs) and another 11% have committed to setting SBTs in the future.
- We are going beyond the decarbonisation of our business. In addition to our efforts to decarbonise our business in line with our near-term science-based targets, our PwC firms purchase high-quality carbon credits equivalent to the remaining scope 1, 2 and scope 3 business travel emissions each year that we cannot reduce or replace today. At COP28, we were proud to be one of the first corporate participants to support Ghana's efforts in fighting deforestation through carbon credits supplied by the LEAF Coalition. This year, 63% of our portfolio was purchased through LEAF.
- We are building greater resilience to climate change: Since we began assessing the physical impacts of climate change on our own business three years ago, we have taken a number of actions to adapt to climate change and reduce our business exposure to physical risks. We also support our clients and communities to do the same. More on these initiatives, our collaborations with other organisations and how we are using our voice to raise awareness of these issues can be found in the report.
- We are connecting this work to other environmental challenges. Nature is critical in driving progress towards net zero, and it is an increasing area of focus for our work. More on how we are deepening our understanding of nature, and the actions we are taking to support nature across our operations, through our carbon offsets, and through our work with clients and the broader market can be found in the report.
- A key aspect of building trust with our clients and demonstrating leadership in sustainability is through our ability to evolve our services to best meet our clients’ changing needs. That’s why we are embedding consideration of environmental matters into our existing core services - such as deals, transforming business models, providing assurance or giving tax and legal advice. We also continue to develop and scale sustainability services, including supporting businesses to better understand their climate risk profiles and develop resilience strategies, manage their energy demand while reducing exposure to price volatility, take steps to drive nature-positive outcomes, or navigate the complex sustainability regulatory landscape.
- As well as helping our clients navigate a changing regulatory landscape, this year we have started enhancing our own reporting towards the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards; the content of this report has been enhanced to include some of the new disclosures. We also joined the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures Early Adopters programme. This report contains our first set of TNFD disclosures.
- Looking ahead: We are committed to our own transformation journey. But the biggest difference PwC can make will be through our work with clients and alliances with other organisations – to accelerate the global transition to net zero, to urgently adapt and build resilience, and drive towards a more sustainable future for all.
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