An Oxford University study developed through pro-bono partnerships with 48 leading law firms around the world, provides the most detailed view yet of how key economic rules are aligning – or not – to climate goals.
For example, a new law in the EU requires companies to create plans that lay out how they will transition to net zero.
In Brazil, incoming rules require listed companies and financial institutions to report publicly not only their emissions, but also the risks they face from climate change. Similar rules exist in California, China, and Turkey. And in the UK, companies seeking to sell the government goods and services worth more than £5m must have a net zero plan.
The study comes at a critical moment as the world confronts a persistent “implementation gap” between climate targets and results. While countries, companies, and other actors continue to set net zero targets – including a 23 percent rise in company net zero targets over the last year – global emissions also continue to rise. As countries look to submit new pledges under the Paris Agreement next year, it is vital they underpin top-level targets with concrete regulations and policies to ensure implementation.
At the same time, a second Trump Administration has promised to roll back climate policies in the US, meaning companies may face a fragmented regulatory landscape, and that policies and regulations introduced at state level and by the rest of the world are all the more vital for achieving net zero globally.
“Nations and companies have made ambitious pledges, but pledges alone won’t prevent catastrophic climate change”, says co-lead for the new survey Professor Thomas Hale of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. “We need legally enforced rules – imposed by governments on themselves and on companies operating in their jurisdictions. The good news is there’s been huge recent growth in such rules. Next we need to close gaps.”
“To close gaps in climate policy, we need to be able to see and understand them”, says co-lead Dr Thom Wetzer, Associate Professor at Oxford’s Faculty of Law and Oxford’s Smith School. “Our open-access Climate Policy Monitor will allow everyone to evaluate the ambition, comprehensiveness and stringency of climate regulations as they evolve over time.”
The Climate Policy Monitor will be a regularly updated public resource evaluating the ambition, comprehensiveness, and stringency of climate-related regulations against 250+ data points. It evaluates national regulations in three key domains:
Climate-related disclosure: Obligations on companies and financial institutions to publicly report information on the risks presented by climate change, their contributions to the problem, and/or the policies they have in place
Transition planning: Rules that require companies to lay out steps they will take to align with climate goals
Public procurement: Rules that align government spending – which typically accounts for 10–15% of a country’s GDP and includes everything from vehicles to new hospitals – with governments’ climate goals.
At COP29, the Monitor’s findings support the work of the UN Taskforce on Net Zero Policy (launched last year at COP28), which will issue a major report in Baku to advance efforts to align policy tools to climate goals.
Catherine McKenna, former Canadian Environment Minister and head of the UN Secretary-General’s net zero integrity task force, says: “Voluntary efforts are important but only get us so far. By weaving net zero into the rules that shape the economy, policymakers can level the playing field and drive not just pledges but big cuts in emissions.”
Photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash
