Corporate governance has emerged as a “the bridge” between corporate climate commitments and the “actions” needed to achieve them, according to a new report released at COP30 in Brazil.

Published by the Taskforce on Net Zero Policy, the report makes clear the central role corporate governance plays in tackling climate change, as concerns mount that the Paris Agreement target has been missed and Washington continues to reject climate and sustainability as major concerns.

The report says: “Corporate governance is emerging as the bridge between companies’ climate commitments and the concrete actions needed to deliver them.

“The strongest uptake [is] seen in areas such as executive accountability, board oversight and climate-linked remuneration—embedding climate responsibility within institutional decision-making and leadership structures.”

In her foreword to the report, Helena Viñes Fiestas, co-chair of the Taskforce and a member of the UN’s High Level Expert Group on emissions, writes: “This year’s report confirms that net-zero policy implementation and stronger accountability mechanisms are gaining momentum across most countries—driven by enhanced disclosure frameworks, sustainable taxonomies, transition planning elements, corporate governance reforms, and the expansion of carbon markets.

“This should give us reason for hope.”

The report comes after UK prime minister Keir Starmer gavea speech at COP30 in which he said the “consensus is gone” on efforts to tackle climate change. Donald Trump is not attending the summit in Brazil and had called climate change the “greatest con job ever perpetrated”.

Corporate obligations

Among a series of five policy recommendations, the taskforce says policymakers should embed climate accountability into corporate governance codes. It adds that boards should be “required” to integrate climate considerations into governance structures, risk management and executive pay.

And in a fillip for policymakers in Brussels and key legislation on human rights and environmental concerns, the Taskforce adds that due diligence in supply chains “should form part of broader corporate obligations, extending beyond human rights to include environmental and climate impacts”.

In a nod to the path governance evolution should take, the Taskforce highlights South Africa’s King V corporate governance code as a shining example. The recently revised code, established on a “apply and explain” basis, supports sustainability reporting using the “double materiality” principle.

In other words, the code requires not only that reporting include the impact of climate change on a business and its strategy, but a company’s impact on people and the environment and its “ability to create sustainable value for stakeholders over time”.

The principle is included in the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) , but not present in the UK current reporting guidelines, nor in the new reporting framework to be adopted based on IFRS 1 and 2 from the International Sustainability Standards Board.

However, UK companies caught by EU legislation may have to apply double materiality all the same.

Also at COP30 this week, a report revealed that only a small majority of companies have properly engaged in sustainability reporting.

Sustainability reporting has proved controversial. The Trump administration has effectively killed off efforts to introduce mandatory climate-risk reporting , while business groups complain bitterly about the prospect of US companies having to comply with EU sustainability reporting and due diligence legislation.

Meanwhile, the EU is in the process of drastically reducing the number of companies subject to European reporting rules, causing some observers to argue the revisions will undermine progress on climate transition.

The Taskforce highlights corporate governance as a vehicle for tackling the climate crisis and yet the most effective governance tools—reporting and disclosures—are likely to remain contentious.