Corporate climate action did not retreat in 2025, and a January 2026 milestone for the Science Based Targets initiative gave that argument fresh support. BusinessGreen published an analysis headlined "Was 2025 really the year of climate retreat? The data tells a different story," saying the numbers point in the opposite direction.
The piece says more than an unspecified number of companies committed to validated emission targets, with sbti reaching a significant milestone in January 2026. That matters because 2025 had been framed as a year when climate ambition was supposedly slipping, but the data cited in the article points to continued movement instead.
The source material does not reveal the full milestone figure, which leaves the scale of the shift partly hidden. Even so, the available reporting is clear on one point: the retreat narrative does not fit the evidence presented, and the next question is how many more companies will move from promises to validated targets.