EDITORIAL

What do the United States, China, Russia, France, India, Australia, Chile and Canada have in common in March 2023? These are all regions that are suffering from increased drought. There is no room for ambiguity: the latest IPCC report clearly establishes the link between climate change and the increase in droughts, while pointing out that the crisis is more global in nature, exacerbated by over-artificialized land. Climate change is here, part of our daily lives. Shortages, rising costs, reliability of forecasting models to be reviewed.
 
How are companies and investors responding? The Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor report estimates that 2/3 of a sample of companies that have committed to an a priori ambitious climate strategy would in fact produce "highly insufficient" or even "misleading" trajectories, delegating the bulk of the effort well beyond the careers and pensions of those who have promulgated them. This is bad news for the climate as well as for droughts. Above all, it is a bad strategic and operational choice. Shell, already ordered by the Dutch courts in 2021 to reduce its emissions by 45% by 2030, is now seeing its board members personally sued one by one for failing to meet their climate obligations. The Grantham Research Institute already records 2220+ climate lawsuits. Various climate lawsuits targeting banking players - and thus moving up the climate liability chain to the level of financial partners - have also been surfacing since 2021 in Europe, the US and Asia, for example.
 
In a world in which stakeholders - customers, employees, business partners, regulators - are increasingly experiencing the effects of climate change in their own daily lives, companies and investors really need to ask themselves whether they are part of the problem or part of the solution. In order to reflect on this question, numbers and facts allow everyone to measure the effort required. For example, if 4600+ companies have "committed" to science-based goals, the reality behind this rapidly growing number is calling for nuances:

1. Among these "committed" companies, there is already an urgent need to close any gap between promise and reality. SBTi has committed to sharing a measurement and verification project by the end of 2023 that can quickly eliminate the list of companies that are "committed" but "not moving enough".
2. Of the 350,000 companies with 250+ employees worldwide, this figure of 4600+ remains overall low. A key question is therefore whether and how these few "leading" companies bring their ecosystems along with them: peers, partners, customers, suppliers in the targeted climate trajectory.
3. Of these 4600+ companies, about 55% are based in (Western) Europe... About 15% are headquartered in the US and about 3% are based in China. Given the climate change footprint of the US and China, the fact that so few companies headquartered in these countries are committing to the SBTi initiative poses a major scientific problem, which relates in particular to the ability of committed companies to engage customers and partners based in these countries
 
We have been following these agendas for over 25 years. In response, Ksapa is and continues to be the strategic partner of its clients around the world with, for example, 4 resources developed within our community, with our investment and private sector clients:

1. Reorganizing and building credibility for a post-COP 27 climate approach
2. Implementing credible Net Zero strategies
3. Engage suppliers in 1.5 degree strategies (and financing mechanisms)
4. Engaging agricultural value chains in Scope 3 decarbonization
 
Ksapa remains more than ever a global catalyst for concrete and innovative solutions for a fairer, more sustainable and faster transition.
 
We look forward to hearing from you soon!
 

Farid Baddache, CEO