Climate change has moved decisively from a peripheral sustainability concern to a core governance issue. For boards across sectors, the question is no longer whether to act, but how fast, how credibly, and how effectively they can steer their organisations through a rapidly tightening regulatory landscape. Directors now sit at the centre of climate ambition: shaping strategy, overseeing delivery, and ensuring that public commitments are backed by robust plans, investment, and measurable progress.

How can directors raise the climate ambitions of their organisations and effect the governance responsibilities associated with meeting stated targets?

Climate ambition as a board-level imperative

Boards increasingly recognise that climate ambition is not simply an ethical stance; it is a strategic necessity. The organisations that thrive in the coming decade will be those that anticipate regulatory shifts, respond to investor expectations, and build resilience against physical and transition risks.

Directors can raise climate ambition in three critical ways:

Setting clear targets. Boards should ensure that science-based targets aligned with the Paris agreement are in place and reflect the organisation’s full value chain impacts. No targets should be set without clear plans to achieve them. This requires measurement of environmental impacts using real activity data to inform the actions required to reduce them. This will also help to prioritise the actions which will deliver the largest reductions and allow progress to be measured. The use of spend-based calculations or benchmarks for material categories of emissions prevents organisations from having a clear pathway to achieving targets as reductions can then only be achieved when the benchmark or spend-based conversion factors reduce, which is outside of an organisation’s control.

Embedding climate into corporate strategy. Climate considerations should shape capital investment/allocation, product development, supply chain decisions, and long term business models. Incorporating sustainability into corporate strategy embeds these key considerations into the business. This should be supported by global policies and processes that also incorporate climate considerations.

Visible leadership commitment. Where there is visible leadership commitment and frequent communication, responsibility becomes part of an organisation’s identity. Directors can reinforce expectations through executive incentives and transparent reporting.

Ambition is not about setting the highest possible target; it is about setting the right target — one that is credible, achievable, and aligned with the organisation’s long-term strategy.

Ensuring targets are met

Once climate targets are set, directors have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure the organisation delivers. This requires transparent reporting, clear accountability and robust oversight:

Transparent reporting. Boards must ensure that disclosures are complete (include all emissions within the organisation’s value chain), accurate, consistent (clear methodology and baseline years restated where changes lead to a material change in calculated emissions) and transparent (any assumptions, estimations or exclusions must be clearly explained). Transparent reporting builds trust with stakeholders and reduces the risk of accusations of greenwashing.

Directors must also ensure that internal data systems are sufficiently mature. Climate data is increasingly treated with the same seriousness as financial data, and boards should oversee assurance processes accordingly.

Outside of formal reporting to directors and the board, progress updates should be made across the firm and to external stakeholders. This is a critical aspect of climate transition as meaningful progress requires change across both the organisation itself, and the value chain. This makes clear communication an important aspect of the change journey.

Executive accountability. Climate performance should be embedded into executive job descriptions, executive KPIs and remuneration frameworks. Directors can raise ambition by ensuring that climate targets are owned across business units rather than siloed within sustainability teams. After all, delivering real change requires involvement across the business, whether it be teams such as finance and HR providing data for calculations, procurement teams engaging with the supply chain, or product development teams designing new products or enhancing existing products to incorporate circular economy principles.

Oversight and assurance. Boards should expect—and request—detailed implementation plans that translate climate commitments into operational actions. A strong reduction plan should include:

• A clear baseline across all three scopes of emissions.
• Short and long term targets aligned with science.
• Specific reduction levers such as energy efficiency, renewable energy procurement, product redesign, supply chain engagement, and logistics optimisation with calculated reductions expected from each.
• Investment requirements and responsible actions owners. Clear business cases are required for each investment.
• Dependencies and constraints to implementing actions must be identified.
• A credible approach to offsets for residual emissions and aligned with best practice standards.
• A monitoring and reporting framework that allows directors to track progress and intervene when necessary.

Directors should challenge management to demonstrate how reduction plans integrate with broader business strategy and how they will be resourced over time. They should also ensure that climate considerations are taken into account in each strategic decision.

Often organisations make long-term decisions which can impact their ability to deliver on targets, such as moving to new offices or tender decisions for new suppliers. It is often more expensive and difficult to make adjustments once these decisions have been made than to build climate considerations into the decision-making process at the start. For example, when looking at new premises, consider whether the building uses renewable energy, diverts waste from landfill, has energy-efficient plant equipment and is close to public transport links.

Climate action and sustainability cannot just be an agenda item once a year—to make progress they need to be carefully considered in each board meeting.

The regulatory shift

Regulations in this space have been evolving at pace over the last couple of years. It is important that organisations have someone responsible for horizon scanning to ensure the business is aware of upcoming changes and can be prepared.

A major development shaping board responsibilities is the upcoming EU Empowering Consumers Directive. These rules will fundamentally change how companies communicate sustainability performance.

This regulation focuses on consumer protection and aims to eliminate vague or misleading sustainability messaging. It will restrict: generic claims without proof; claims based solely on offsetting; and sustainability labels not backed by recognised certification schemes.

For directors, these regulations mean that climate ambition must be matched by credible delivery. Targets cannot be aspirational marketing statements; they must be grounded in evidence and supported by reduction plans that withstand regulatory scrutiny. These plans are no longer optional; they are essential governance tools.

The director’s role in a high scrutiny future

The evolving regulatory landscape places directors at the centre of climate governance. Their role is not simply to approve targets but to ensure that the organisation can meet them—and prove it.

Key responsibilities include:
• Ensuring claims are substantiated. Directors must verify that all public statements are backed by evidence and compliant with EU regulations.
• Demanding credible reduction plans. Ambition without a plan is a liability.
• Overseeing delivery. Boards must monitor progress, challenge delays, and ensure accountability.
• Protecting the organisation from greenwashing risks. Reputational, regulatory, and legal risks are rising sharply.
• Considering climate risks and opportunities in strategic planning. While measuring and reducing emissions is important, there are many other risks and opportunities to consider when championing long-term value creation.

Supply chain risks (availability of resources and damage to transport routes) and physical risks to company facilities should be considered and addressed. However, there are also opportunities to be considered, and the most successful companies are the ones which identify and maximise them. One way to do this is to provide training across the organisation so that all roles understand the importance of climate action.

A resilient future

Climate ambition is now a defining feature of modern governance. Directors who embrace this responsibility—with clarity, rigour, and strategic foresight—will position their organisations to thrive in a world where environmental performance is scrutinised, regulated, and central to long term success.

The message is clear: set credible targets, build robust plans, substantiate every claim, and oversee delivery with the same seriousness applied to financial performance. In doing so, directors not only meet regulatory expectations but also lead their organisations toward a more resilient and sustainable future.

Nicky Sinker is a carbon specialist at Auditel, a cost, procurement and carbon solutions company.