Research shows 94 of 900-plus groups have strategy to meet Paris climate accord goals More than 900 of the world’s largest companies have a plan to cut their carbon pollution but only a fraction are doing enough to meet the goals of the Paris climate change accord, according to data compiled for Norway’s $876bn oil fund and other big investors. In a sign of how investment groups are starting to use the Paris agreement to pressure companies, the research reveals that only 94 of these businesses have a strategy to deal with the UN pact’s aim to stop global temperatures rising more than 2C. They include Japanese electronics group, Sony, which plans a 90 per cent cut in its carbon emissions by 2050, and Philips, the Dutch conglomerate, which says it will use renewable electricity for its North American operations by the end of this year and globally by 2020. But the response from oil majors and other big fossil fuel groups is “disappointing”, says a report by the Carbon Disclosure Project, a non-profit body that collects company data for more than 800 institutional investors with combined holdings of more than $100tn, including BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. “You have to remember that not everyone thinks climate change is a real area of risk,” said Paul Simpson, CDP chief executive. However, he said this could change now that the Paris agreement adopted last December had been ratified so quickly by so many countries that it will come into force on November 4, much faster than many of its architects were expecting. The nearly 200 nations that backed the deal have agreed to curb global warming by volunteering plans to cut fossil fuel emissions, such as putting a price on carbon pollution or boosting renewable energy. Mr Simpson said the speed at which the accord has entered force was a signal that countries are “serious and they are going to deliver”. Still, it is unclear how fast governments will act under the agreement, which will not impose financial penalties on laggards. CDP and other environmental groups have used UN scientific data to calculate how much companies in individual industries would need to reduce their carbon emissions to meet the Paris deal’s 2C goal. The new CDP report is the first to look at what large companies are doing to meet these so-called “science-based targets”, information some investors say will make it easier to direct their money to businesses best able to deal with the accord’s aims. The research group asked just over 1,800 companies with a large market value and carbon footprint to disclose their climate strategies. It secured responses from 1,089 that together account for 12 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Facebook, Amazon and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway group were among those that failed to respond at all. Although many of the largest oil and gas majors, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP supplied responses, CDP said only half of companies in the energy sector had “meaningful” targets, even though they face the most pressure to change as a result of the Paris Agreement and “need to consider how they might survive in the long term”.