It’s fair to say 2024 – for climate change – has come with plenty of low points. May 2024 closed off a 12-month streak of record-high global temperatures. Climate disasters have made headlines month after month: from catastrophic floods, to out-of-season wildfires, to hurricanes worsened by rising temperatures. And in the midst of all this devastation, it feels as if the systems are failing us. Only 17% of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by all UN member countries in 2015 are currently on track. The US election results in November have left many of us feeling even more uncertain about the future.
Despite these challenges, one fact remains undeniable: to effectively reduce emissions and prevent catastrophic temperature rises, we must triple our global renewable energy capacity. And companies have a huge role to play in making this happen.
If we can get the right companies – major corporations with massive carbon footprints (yet impressive-sounding climate promises) – to stop burning fossil fuels and instead invest in renewables to power their operations and supply chains, we can make huge strides in cleaning up the world’s energy grids. The good news? This is not only possible, but it’s getting increasingly difficult for corporations to turn a blind eye.
What’s more, along with this year’s valleys, there have also been peaks of hope and progress. 2024 has seen a huge growth in renewable energy. And in some cases, regulations have passed to begin to hold companies accountable. In our corner, pressure has been built, and foundations have been laid, for some of the biggest emitting companies to ramp up investment in renewables. And so, as the year comes to a close, our team of campaigners and industry experts have put together a guide to some of the major things that have happened in 2024 as we continue to fight for a just, systemic shift to a cleaner and safer world.
Speaking of peaks: this year has seen record-breaking growth in renewable energy deployment globally. This is important because the global electricity grid is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels, and transitioning to clean energy sources like wind and solar is essential for meeting climate targets. Put simply, tripling renewable energy is the single largest action to cut emissions this decade. So what has happened this year in this space?
Building momentum, but we need to accelerate.
According to the International Energy Agency’s Renewables 2024 report, we are on track for renewables to account for almost 50% of global electricity generation by 2030. However, while momentum is building, we need to accelerate if we want to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 to align with climate goals. This is within reach — but we need to increase both policy and corporate ambition to make it happen.
Corporations’ increasing role in renewable energy capacity
Corporations can play a pivotal role in this acceleration. By investing in renewable energy, especially through Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) — where a company agrees to purchase electricity from a renewable energy producer — companies not only clean up their own operations but contribute to new renewable energy being added to the grid in the markets where they operate.
In 2023, corporate PPAs reached an all time high, signalling growing private-sector involvement in funding RE projects. In 2024 that momentum is being maintained. However, in order to accelerate renewable energy capacity to get it to triple by 2030, companies must extend their RE investments beyond their operations to their supply chains — where most of their emissions normally come from.
Here is where the policy ambition comes in. Government policies and regulations, and industry standards and frameworks, play a crucial role in getting corporations to produce robust climate plans, set strong targets, and ultimately do what we need them to do: invest in renewables. Here’s what happened in this space this year.
Stronger government regulations in the EU
In 2024, the EU passed regulations that represent an important step forward in increasing corporate transparency and accountability when it comes to climate impacts and emissions.
Firstly, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). This regulation increases the level of environmental reporting required from companies, as well as the number of companies it applies to, extending to non-EU companies with significant European operations. Greater reporting means greater transparency: first and foremost we need to know where emissions come from, how many there are, and what companies are doing to address them to increase potential for meaningful action.
Secondly, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) came into force this year, which requires large companies with more than EUR 450 million in turnover to identify and address potential and actual adverse human rights and environmental impacts in the company’s own operations, their subsidiaries, and value chain.
Reporting and accounting standards under scrutiny
While there have been some policy shifts in the EU, the loophole-filled global standards and rules for how companies should count their emissions, report on them, and calculate their emission reductions, have come under scrutiny.
Specifically, the carbon accounting rules under the Greenhouse Gas Protocol — the most widely accepted standard for carbon accounting — have been under the spotlight this year. Companies — such as Big Tech like Amazon and Meta — are using current loopholes in these rules to underreport their emissions and even claim to be using 100% renewable energy in their operations, when in reality, they are not. This might sound technical, but the rules really matter. Right now, companies can just buy cheap — and meaningless — renewable energy credits to claim, on paper, to be powered by renewables. Doing so means they don’t have to actually invest in building genuinely new wind and solar.
Currently, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol is under review, and the battle over carbon accounting rules is going to be a major issue in 2025. Building a fair system is the foundation of driving renewable energy growth: if these rules are strengthened, it will lead to more corporate investment in renewables.
With all of this in mind, here is where we come in. The campaigns that Action Speaks Louder has worked on in 2024 have been designed to push for meaningful progress in building additional renewable energy to power global grids — and for some of the companies with the potential to create the biggest impact to take an active role in this.
This year we have seen continued signs of progress in our existing campaigns in the fashion and tech sectors. This is thanks to people like you who have joined us and used your voices to hold these companies’ feet to the flame.
Spotlight on the rules of the game
Coming back to the rules of the game: in 2024, we launched a report aiming to bring this important topic to light. In Hidden Power, Broken Rules, we investigated just how some Big Tech companies use the current loopholes to their advantage. The report hit the headlines, with coverage from the Financial Times, among others. In 2025, we will continue to make sure the rules are fair, and encourage renewable energy growth.
Narrative shifts in the fashion industry
This year, in collaboration with Fashion Revolution, we supported the inaugural What Fuels Fashion report, analyzing the climate disclosures of 250 major fashion brands. This report is one of the first steps in focusing the narrative within the fashion industry towards brands’ fossil fuel use in their supply chain — a topic that is often overlooked when talking about fashion’s environmental harm, yet imperative if we want them to invest in renewables.
The report’s findings revealed a glaring lack of transparency and ambition, prompting calls for brands to invest 2% of their annual revenues into a clean, fair and just energy transition.
Other reports this year from Transformers Foundation and Apparel Impact Institute have similarly called for brands to provide meaningful support for manufacturers to finance supply chain decarbonisation — shifting the fashion industry sustainability narrative towards centering suppliers’ voices when talking about solutions. This is crucial to ensure the transition to renewables in the industry is fair and just, and we’re excited to see this work expand in 2025.
An opportunity for progress at lululemon
In 2024, as part of our ongoing campaign asking lululemon to commit to stronger climate targets, we published an investigation looking into the brand’s textile supply chain. Our report revealed significant environmental harm to local communities where some of lululemon’s factories are located.
During the Paris Olympics in July 2024, we collaborated with athletes and Olympians to push lululemon to set ambitious renewable energy targets. Hundreds of our supporters also took the time to email lululemon’s Sustainability team to demand the same thing. As a result, the company committed to reaching 25% renewable electricity for its core suppliers by 2025. As lululemon prepares to launch their long-term Climate Plan in 2025, we will continue to campaign for stronger, more credible targets and a clear, transparent climate transition plan.
Stepping stones at Canon
In 2024, we doubled down on our campaign ask demanding that Canon clean up its operations and invest in renewable energy. Hundreds of you took the time to email the company’s executives in Japan, Southeast Asia, and Europe letting them know that this mattered to you.
In response, in its 2024 Sustainability Report, Canon announced an increase in their renewable energy use. Having never gone above the 4% range, Canon’s annual renewable energy use went up to 12.87%. Then in May 2024, Canon Oceania became the first region to announce a 100% regional renewable energy target.
Technically, if Canon continues to increase their renewable energy use at the same rate year on year, it could reach 60% renewable energy use by 2030 — putting it on track to reaching 100% renewable energy use and contributing significantly to additional RE being built in key markets. However, in order to do this Canon Global needs to commit to public renewable energy targets like their Oceania region has done.
Especially in times when the future feels uncertain, it’s up to you and I to use our voices and power (because we do have power) to push for meaningful change. And thanks to people like you who take an active role in keeping companies accountable, we have made some important progress in our campaigns.
We also have set up for a 2025 filled with even greater impact. Firstly, the rules of corporate carbon accounting and reporting. Over the next year, we will push for the closing of the current loopholes allowing companies to underreport their emissions, laying the foundation for just and accelerated RE growth.
Secondly, we will continue to strategically design campaigns around the biggest possible impact, giving you a platform to take meaningful action and participate in systemic change. While continuing to work on our current sectors, we will launch campaigns in new, high-emitting sectors. One of these sectors is steel: a massively polluting (7% of global greenhouse gas emissions) industry that often flies under the radar when it comes to public pressure. A big part of our focus for the past year has been preparing to launch our work on this, and you can see some initial results of this already, like in this coverage by Reuters of our investigation into the industry. We’re excited to bring it all to life in 2025 and continue to push the most polluting companies to use their money and power to transform our energy system — and make our world cleaner.
Thank you for being here with us this year. Here’s to a 2025 of collective action, systemic change, and many, many wind turbines.
