Climate and Energy Benchmark
The Climate and Energy Benchmark assesses the highest corporate carbon emitters. It measures their progress against the Paris Agreement and SDG 13, and inspires action for the low-carbon transition.
Aim
Our world needs a major decarbonisation and energy transformation to prevent the climate crisis we’re facing and meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F).
The private sector plays a critical role in driving decarbonisation and must take action now to meet the Paris Agreement goal. The Climate and Energy Benchmark is an accountability mechanism that measures corporate progress against the Paris Agreement and whether companies are contributing to a just transition.
Our Climate and Energy Benchmark covers rankings of 450 of the world’s most influential, keystone companies in high-emitting sectors like automotive, electric utilities, oil and gas, transport, buildings and construction. These sector benchmarks will be regularly updated.
View our benchmarks
Heavy Industries Benchmark
The 2024 Climate and Energy Benchmark assessing the heavy industries reveals valuable insights about the performance of 91 companies in the aluminium, cement and steel industries.
See 2024 Heavy Industries Benchmark
Electric Utilities Benchmark
This benchmark presents the key findings and detailed company scorecards from the assessment of 68 keystone electric utilities companies.
See 2023 Electric Utilities Benchmark
Oil and Gas Benchmark
This benchmark presents the key findings and detailed company scorecards from the assessment of 100 keystone oil and gas companies.
See 2023 Oil and Gas Benchmark
Buildings Benchmark
This benchmark presents the key findings and detailed company scorecards from the assessment of 50 keystone buildings companies.
See 2023 Buildings Benchmark
Transport Benchmark
This benchmark presents the key findings and detailed company scorecards from the assessment of 90 keystone transport companies.
See 2022 Transport Benchmark
Automotive Benchmark
This benchmark presents the key findings and detailed company scorecards from the assessment of 30 keystone automotive manufacturers.
See 2021 Automotive BenchmarkMethodology
The Climate and Energy Benchmark measures the readiness of companies to transition to a low-carbon economy, using the future-oriented ACT methodologies. ACT (Accelerate Climate Transition) methodologies use the most ambitious scenarios available from the International Energy Agency (IEA) to calculate company pathways and assess companies against the 1.5°C Paris goal. ACT seeks the views and opinions of a wide range of stakeholders including companies, NGOs, academics and other interested parties through public consultation. All ACT resources and our methodologies for launched benchmarks can be found here.
WBA has also developed core social indicators and just transition indicators. We will assess the companies in the Climate and Energy Benchmark with these in 2021 to create our Just Transition Assessments. From 2022, each sector benchmark in the Climate and Energy series will comprise an integrated assessment using ACT, as well as the core social and just transition indicators.
About the ACT initiative
Formally launched in 2015 at COP21, the ACT initiative was founded by ADEME and developed in partnership with CDP. Now hosted by WBA, ACT is a pioneering international initiative that creates a “climate accountability” framework to evaluate companies’ transition plans. Over the years, the ACT initiative has developed sector-specific methodologies and has significantly influenced many of the most recent transition plan frameworks and regulations. Rebranded as Accelerate Climate Transition, the initiative continues to provide tools and methods to assess the credibility of companies’ transition plans. Since 2023, it has also introduced tools and methods to help companies develop these plans and assess their adaptation strategies.
Get involved
To build our work, we continue to engage with key organisations and stakeholders all across the globe through targeted communications with their representatives. We also encourage relevant and constructive feedback from diverse groups and world regions to help make our work more meaningful for all.
WBA's benchmarks allow us to see beyond glossy corporate press releases with statements of ambition, and give us the 'real story'. Sometimes this is dim viewing, but more often we see trends of transformation occurring, catalysed by investment, policy and technological breakthroughs by companies, which if replicated by the rest of the sector provides real cause for hope.
