Testing the ambition loop: do country- and company-level net-zero targets reinforce each other? A global comparison

One theory about company- and country-level climate actions is that they interact with one another through a mutually reinforcing “ambition loop”. Using publicly available data on country- and company-level net-zero targets, our econometric analysis reveals a positive relationship between state and company: A country introducing a domestic net-zero target in law increases the likelihood of companies introducing their own voluntary targets and vice-versa. Our findings offer important insights into the mechanisms of climate governance—knowledge that will be critical if we are to meet global net-zero targets by 2050.

Eskander, S., Higham, C., Hamley, M., Setzer, J., & Fankhauser, S. (2024). Testing the Ambition Loop: Do Country- and Company-Level Net-Zero Targets Reinforce Each Other? A Global Comparison. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13876988.2024.2317949