In a new paper, Robert Höglund of Milkywire and Claire Wigg of the Exponential Roadmap Initiative introduce a new framework for how companies can help create the conditions needed to achieve their net zero targets.
Every net zero target assumes a future world that does not yet exist. It assumes cleaner technologies, supportive policies, new infrastructure, evolving markets, and the widespread adoption of climate solutions. Setting a net zero target is therefore not only a commitment to reduce emissions within a company’s own value chain, but also a commitment to help build the world that makes those reductions possible.
Today, corporate net zero targets often combine two fundamentally different things: emissions reductions that a company can achieve through its own decisions, and emissions reductions that depend on changes in policy, technology, infrastructure, or markets.
Treating these as the same can create confusion. It can hold companies accountable for outcomes that are beyond their direct control, while failing to adequately recognise the actions they can take to accelerate broader system change.
As a result, many companies focus primarily on actions that are reflected in their greenhouse gas inventories, even when other activities, such as supporting innovation, building markets, engaging in policy advocacy, funding climate solutions, or strengthening civil society, may have a greater impact on the pace of the transition.
The paper proposes a framework that separates corporate net zero targets into two components. Mirroring the Paris Agreement’s distinction between unconditional and conditional nationally determined contributions, it distinguishes between the emissions reductions that can be achieved under existing policies and market conditions, and those that depend on wider system changes. By making this distinction explicit, the framework helps companies better understand both what they are directly responsible for reducing and how they can contribute to creating the conditions for the rest to happen.
