Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) and global insights agency Horizon Group have released a new report detailing how businesses are managing their net-zero transition.

The report explores areas where businesses can accelerate their climate transition. The results are based on the Sustainability Executives Survey of 668 executives who have sustainability-related responsibilities within the company.

It revealed companies across sectors and across the globe are committed to transitioning to net zero and are already delivering transition plans. However, 50% of companies deemed costs and scale of capital expenditure the most significant barrier to developing a net-zero plan. It is closely followed by three related roadblocks:

• lack of feasible technological solutions;
• regulatory challenges; and
• difficulties in measuring and monitoring impact.

Australia

In Australia, 73% of companies confirmed that they have a net-zero plan in place, and 27% said the plan is already in progress. Among stakeholders, 23% of investors advocate most strongly for net-zero action, followed by management (20%), shareholders (20%), and regulators (20%).

The report further revealed that Australian companies reduce emissions by focusing on reducing emissions through supply chain (23%), increasing energy efficiency of buildings (20%), purchasing carbon offsets or credits (13%), choosing alternatives for fuels and raw materials (13%), and promoting consumer or customer behaviour change (13%).

When asked about the main challenges in developing a net-zero transition plan, 53% of the respondents chose costs and scale of capital expenditure needed, 50% cited regulatory challenges, and 43% difficulty measuring or monitoring the impacts.

Matt Holmes, group head of political and government affairs at Zurich, called on policymakers to support businesses' climate transition by making systematic, economy-wide interventions.

“The discussion so far suggests three priorities for action for governments: creating policy certainty, facilitating investment in mitigation and adaptation, and turbo charging innovation,” Holmes said.

Zurich Resilience Solutions recently teamed up with KPMG Switzerland to provide climate change advisory services.