The work these companies are doing is needed now more than ever. Global warming appears to be accelerating. The oceans are heating up faster than expected. And some scientists fear the planet is approaching tipping points that could trigger dramatic shifts in Earth’s ecosystems.
Nations must cut the greenhouse-gas pollution fueling that warming, and the heat waves, hurricanes, droughts, and fires it brings, as fast as possible. But we can’t simply halt emissions without plunging the global economy into a deep depression and the world into chaos.
Any realistic plan to cut billions of tons of emissions over the next few decades requires us to develop and scale up cleaner ways of producing electricity, manufacturing goods, generating heat and cooling, and moving people and stuff around the world.
To do that, we need competitive companies that can displace heavily polluting industries, or force them to clean up their acts. Those firms need to provide consumers with low-emissions options that, ideally, don’t feel like a sacrifice. And because climate change is underway, we also need technologies and services and infrastructure that can keep communities safe even as the world grows hotter and the weather becomes more erratic and extreme.
As we stated last year, we don’t claim to be oracles or soothsayers. The success of any one business depends on many hard-to-predict variables, including market conditions, political winds, investor sentiment, and consumer preferences. Taking aim at the business model and margins of conglomerates is especially fraught—and some of these firms may well fail.
But we did our best to select companies with solid track records that are tackling critical climate problems and have shown recent progress.
This year’s list includes companies working to cut stubborn agricultural emissions, mine the metals needed for the energy transition in cleaner ways, and help communities tamp out wildfires before they become infernos. Others are figuring out new ways to produce fuels that can power our vehicles and industries, without adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
A few companies from last year’s list also made the cut again because they’ve made notable strides toward their goals in the past 12 months.
We’re proud to publish the full list in the coming weeks. We hope you’ll take a look, ideally learn something new, and perhaps leave feeling encouraged that the world can make the changes needed to ease the risks of climate change and build a more sustainable future.
