The Best and Worst of Sustainability in 2024

In the festive spirit, I’m channeling Charles Dickens, the man who gave us A Christmas Carol and popularized the holiday season.

Another of his classics, A Tale of Two Cities, is a fitting analogy for 2024’s ESG & climate landscape. Its iconic opening line—"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"—captures the contrasting themes in this year’s ESG and Climate News.  

Here’s a breakdown of the year's biggest news stories into five positive stories (the best of times) and five negative stories (the worst of times) from a sustainability lens.  For the hot news of this week - check out the notable news section at the end.  

Let’s review the positives first:

It Was the Best of Times

1. New Regulations A Plenty

A host of ESG new regulations aimed to nudge companies to act on sustainability were introduced in 2024:

2. Companies Continue To Take Voluntary Action

Public US companies that report their Scope 1 and 2 emissions based on size. Source HIP Investors

Despite the ongoing ESG backlash, companies continued to act voluntarily in 2024. A record number of companies reported on social metrics and climate emissions, plus 95% of the 250 largest companies in the world now publish a carbon target. And some companies have seen significant success: Walmart, for example, managed to complete its ambitious Project Gigaton - reducing a billion metric tons of emissions from its sprawling supply chain - six years ahead of schedule!

Mounting evidence is furthering the case that mitigating climate risk makes economic sense. A new report released by BCG this month shows that each dollar spent on reducing climate risk can produce as much as $19 in return.  

3. Record-Breaking Year for Renewables and EVs

4. Biodiversity and Nature Came into Focus

The world’s largest biodiversity event happened in Cali, Colombia, earlier this year. Even though the delegates failed to reach an agreement, several announcements at this year's event showed that companies are considering nature and biodiversity, evidenced by a 43% surge in the number of companies reporting biodiversity metrics to CDP and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), reaching a milestone of 500 companies. A new report released this week found that business impacts on biodiversity cost the global economy between $10tn and $25tn annually.

5. Sustainability Professionals and Activists Showed Steely Resolve

Sustainability professionals have been resilient in the face of political backlash and reporting/regulatory fatigue in 2024. This survey by Joel Makower found that the vast majority of sustainability workers remain cautiously optimistic. 

It Was The Worst of Times

1 The US Election

There is no end of speculation about the impact on climate progress stemming from President-elect Trump’s victory in November. It’s a near certainty that the US will pull out of the Paris Climate Accord (again), and there will be stalling and reversal of key environmental policies along with increased oil and gas production and consumption. It is less clear if the Biden-era climate incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will be rolled back. In any case, much of the IRA grant money and tax credits have already been deployed - primarily to “red” states. 

2. Corporate BackTracking 

Faced with the growing anti-ESG backlash, many companies reduced or repealed their Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), and environmental goals in 2024. Also, financial institutions that joined groups like Climate Action 100+ and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) with great fanfare just a few years ago left in droves.

Again, this is not the whole story: Amid the high-profile defections, the majority of Climate Action’s 650 members remain in the group. The same is true of GFANZ members. 485 of the Fortune 500 still have DEI goals, and fewer than 10% of firms plan to reduce DEI resources over the next three years, reflecting a continued recognition of diversity’s business value.

3. Regulatory Backtracking

While new laws are enacted, existing laws are being reopened, reconsidered, or in some cases, repealed. Some notable regulatory retreats:

4. Most Emissions and Hottest Year Ever

Global Emissions over the last 60 years. Source: Carbon Brief

Due to unprecedented heat, we also saw a wide range of extreme weather events worldwide—far too many to mention. Some notable examples include Hurricanes Milton and Helene in the US, and the devastating floods in Valencia, Spain

5. A Series of COP Disappointments

The lack of progress at the international level and the failure of a multilateral plastics deal have led some to suggest that these processes are not fit for purpose and should possibly be combined and reformed.

Top 5 Editions of 2025

Thanks to readers like you, ESG & Climate News was read over 1 million times in 2024. Here are the top five editions you don’t want to miss for a deeper dive into key moments of the year.

  1. General Motors’ CSO Kristen Siemen’s Driving Mission: Zero Emissions, Zero Crashes, and Zero Congestion: Our first industry deep dive explored GM’s groundbreaking sustainability efforts.

  2. The Dragon Roars: China’s New Sustainability Disclosure Mandate: China’s new ESG disclosure proposals were introduced.

  3. ESG On Fire: Tackled the anti-ESG backlash and debated whether “sustainability” is a better term.

  4. Top Five Takeaways from SEC’s Final Climate Rule: Covered the finalized SEC climate rule before it was stayed, likely permanently.

  5. ISSB Adoption in Full Swing: Explored how countries are adopting ISSB standards for climate and sustainability reporting.

Did you have a favorite story from last year? Share it in the comments.

The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer. 

Other Notable News:

Carbon Removal

New Reporting Standards

Greenwashing

Climate Rules

Climate litigation

Climate Science

Notable Podcasts: 

Notable Jobs:

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