Decarbonisation in Companies: New Standards Require Concrete Strategies
Decarbonisation in companies is inexorably evolving from a voluntary initiative to a regulatory necessity. The chemical industry accounts for around five to six percent of Germany’s total emissions, yet faces considerable challenges in the transition to climate-neutral production processes. This level is clearly too high for a climate-neutral Europe by 2050 and requires systematic transformation processes.
While 49 per cent of European companies have climate protection plans based on the 1.5-degree target, there is a serious implementation deficit: less than five per cent can demonstrate how they intend to achieve and implement these targets in concrete terms. This discrepancy between strategic declarations of intent and operational reality highlights the lack of concrete decarbonisation strategies and evidence of serious transformation measures.
The central problem lies in the complex assessment of Scope 3 emissions that arise along the entire value chain. The current standard for corporate decarbonisation strategies, the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTI) methodology, evaluates Scope 3 targets but does not classify them systematically. These methodological limitations make it considerably more difficult to precisely quantify and control emissions.
New Reporting Requirements for Decarbonisation Tighten Requirements
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), with its Section 19a, fundamentally changes the regulatory requirements for decarbonisation in companies. The new European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) require more comprehensible, comparable and detailed sustainability information. Companies must demonstrate that their business models and strategies are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. Companies that fail to report or report incorrectly will therefore face significant penalties.
These stricter compliance requirements make it essential to have audit-proof methods for measuring CO2 emissions, calculating company-specific CO2 budgets and setting specific decarbonisation targets. The challenge is to translate these targets into concrete strategies and integrate them into existing business processes.
Science-based Methods for Concrete Climate Strategies
Modern assessment models such as the XDegree Compatibility Model (XDC) are based on global climate models, which are also used in the IPCC report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. These instruments take three mandatory factors into account: full-scope emissions (Scope 1-3 according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol), EBITDA data and personnel costs. They measure in the same unit as the target – in degrees Celsius – and quantify how many degrees the climate would warm if the entire world had the same climate performance as the organisation under consideration.
Systematic implementation takes place in clearly defined steps: First, companies take stock in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol – distinguishing between individual scope emissions to identify emission hotspots in the supply chain and IT infrastructure. They then define clear, measurable climate targets. For the chemical industry in particular, process heat and process steam offer considerable savings potential through the systematic increase of renewable energies in energy-intensive production processes.
A detailed roadmap sets out specific reduction steps, while continuous monitoring quantifies partial successes and enables adaptive adjustments. Studies document that companies with a systematic approach achieve up to seven per cent better performance in terms of growth and profitability and generate additional shareholder value. Without appropriate measures, companies risk losing 20 per cent of their economic profits.
Successful transformation requires a structural shift towards clearly service-oriented business models with an energy- and resource-efficient circular economy as a strategic model.
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