Something has shifted in the conversation about corporate climate leadership. The question is no longer whether companies should act. It is whether the way most companies are acting is sufficient to keep them competitive in the economy that is taking shape around them.

That is the argument Johan Falk, CEO and Co-founder of the Exponential Roadmap Initiative, makes in his new paper, launched during London Climate Action Week 2026. The paper, titled “The Exponential Framework: Five Pillars to Win in the Earth-Aligned Economy,” does not ask companies to do more of what they are already doing. It asks them to rethink what climate leadership actually means for a business that wants to grow.

Falk writes:

“The next competitive advantage belongs to companies that grow climate and nature solutions, mobilise capital and shape markets for an Earth-aligned economy, while cutting emissions rapidly and with integrity.”

Why Disclosure and Target-Setting Are Not Enough

The paper opens with a direct diagnosis of where corporate climate action has stalled. Over recent years, companies have made genuine progress: setting science-based targets, strengthening disclosure, reducing emissions across their own operations and value chains. That work remains foundational. But it has also, in many cases, become the ceiling rather than the floor.

Falk argues that carbon accounting and target-setting, while necessary for integrity, are not the transition itself. The companies that will shape the next decade are those that use their products, procurement, investments, partnerships and public voice to accelerate change beyond the boundaries of their own business. The defining business question, as he frames it, is whether a company can transition fast enough to compete, grow and win as political turbulence, energy security, material constraints and supply-chain volatility become business as usual.

The Five-Pillar Lens

The Exponential Framework is structured around five mutually reinforcing pillars. The first two, cutting operational emissions and decarbonising value chains, correspond broadly to Scope 1, 2 and 3 under the GHG Protocol. These remain central and non-negotiable.

The paper’s most important contribution is the attention it directs to the other three. Pillar 3 asks which products, services, technologies and business models can accelerate climate and nature solutions. Pillar 4 asks which capital flows, offtake agreements, supplier finance and investment decisions can accelerate value chain transformation. Pillar 5 asks how policy, trade associations and public narratives can be influenced to accelerate positive system change.

Falk is direct about why these three pillars have been underweighted:

“Many standards, validation models and reporting frameworks rightly provide essential discipline for target-setting, emissions accounting, transition planning and disclosure. The Exponential Framework complements that architecture by expanding the management lens: Pillars 3, 4 and 5 ask what a company can build, finance and influence so that the low-carbon economy moves faster.”

The framework does not replace existing standards. It sits alongside them, expanding the unit of analysis from a company’s reported footprint to the full set of business levers it can use.

A Strategic Tool, Not a Reporting Tool

For boards and executive teams, the paper argues that the Framework is far more than a sustainability instrument. It becomes a way to shape strategy for the next economy: which markets to grow in, which assets to shift away from, which suppliers to enable, which customers to help accelerate and which policy conditions to support.

The boardroom questions the Framework asks are deliberately business-oriented. What share of revenue comes from climate and nature solutions now and in five years? What share of R&D and capital expenditure is building the new economy? Are financial assets aligned with net zero? Are lobbying and trade association positions accelerating the policies needed for a competitive clean economy?

Recognising What the Current System Misses

One of the paper’s sharper arguments concerns a recognition gap in the current architecture of corporate climate accountability. Scope 1, 2 and 3 reporting is essential for integrity, but it structurally under-recognises the actions that unlock real-world transformation: expanding climate and nature solutions, creating demand for low-carbon materials, financing suppliers, investing in infrastructure and advocating enabling policy.

The result is weak incentives for companies to invest in Pillars 3, 4 and 5, even when those actions are critical for real-world decarbonisation. The Exponential Roadmap Initiative, together with Oxford Net Zero and Futerra, is developing a scheme to help recognise credible near-term leadership both within and beyond inventory reductions.

Built on a Decade of Practice

The Exponential Framework is not a theoretical construct. It sits inside the Exponential Business Playbook, first launched in 2020 and developed together with scientists, experts and some of the world’s most climate-ambitious companies. The Playbook is now supported by an ecosystem of companies and organisations representing more than one trillion dollars in annual revenue and around two million employees.

The latest version of the framework, published in June 2026, marks the beginning of the next phase: scaling its application to thousands of companies that have set targets but need a faster path from ambition to execution.