The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu The leading online blog in the fields of corporate governance and financial regulation. Wed, 03 Jun 2026 20:58:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/cropped-photography-4-e1706898544564-1-32x32.png The Push to Net Zero Emissions: Where the Board Comes In – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 The Push to Net Zero Emissions: Where the Board Comes In https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2022/02/06/the-push-to-net-zero-emissions-where-the-board-comes-in/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-push-to-net-zero-emissions-where-the-board-comes-in https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2022/02/06/the-push-to-net-zero-emissions-where-the-board-comes-in/#comments Sun, 06 Feb 2022 14:02:17 +0000 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/?p=143099?d=20220206090217EST Posted by Maria Castañón Moats and Tracey-Lee Brown, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, on Sunday, February 6, 2022
Editor's Note:

Maria Castañón Moats is Leader and Tracey-Lee Brown is Director of the Governance Insights Center, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. This post is based on their PwC memorandum. Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes The Illusory Promise of Stakeholder Governance (discussed on the Forum here) and Will Corporations Deliver Value to All Stakeholders?, both by Lucian A. Bebchuk and Roberto Tallarita; For Whom Corporate Leaders Bargain by Lucian A. Bebchuk, Kobi Kastiel, and Roberto Tallarita (discussed on the Forum here); and Restoration: The Role Stakeholder Governance Must Play in Recreating a Fair and Sustainable American Economy—A Reply to Professor Rock by Leo E. Strine, Jr. (discussed on the Forum here).

Governments, regulators, shareholders, and others are making advancements in the push to net zero emissions, and they are expecting the same from companies. What do net zero pledges mean for a company and its strategic future? How should boards be thinking about these commitments? What is the board’s role in overseeing those decisions and monitoring progress? Here, we provide the tools for directors to lead what’s next on climate change.

The climate change landscape

Some immediately think about global warming when the topic of climate change comes up. That’s certainly part of it, but climate change also leads to droughts, water scarcity, rising sea levels, flooding, and so much more. And the effects of climate change will have wide-ranging impacts on human health, the ability to produce food, and where people live and work. The future of humanity is dependent on addressing climate change, making it an urgent crisis.

The largest (though not the only) contributor to climate change is greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists estimate that greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by half in less than 10 years to avoid the most devastating impacts of irreversible climate change.

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