CIRCULAR ECONOMY

outstanding sustainability-linked loans and bonds that tie a borrower’ s coupon to its emissions

companies with SBTi-validated climate targets by January 2026, roughly 40 % of global market capitalisation

Firms had not lost faith in the destination. They had lost faith in the marketing team to get them there, so the job passed to the people who run the money.

The rules were pushing the same way, no longer willing to leave climate as a voluntary flourish. California went first, as it tends to, with a law called SB 253 that asks any large company operating in the state to measure its emissions, then, from 2027, put the figure through the same audit as its accounts.

Europe’ s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive casts the net wider still, making thousands of large companies, foreign firms included if they sell enough into the bloc, file audited sustainability reports next to their financial accounts.

Washington drafted a version of its own before losing its nerve, but between the reach of California and the European Union, a serious company now treats its emissions the way it treats its revenue: as a number it has to stand behind.

For years, net zero was the sustainability team’ s to carry. They set the ambition, learned the science, built the first carbon inventories, mostly without much help from anyone else in the building. What they could not do was give those numbers the weight of the financials.

That is why nine in 10 CFOs told Accenture they expect ESG back

94 September 2026