2024 Annual Report: Business at the helm of the transition
We Mean Business Coalition
Ten years ago, the We Mean Business Coalition was founded on a bold premise: that business leadership is essential to solving the climate crisis.
Amid geopolitical and market change, innovative businesses create and secure new opportunities. They take smart risks, reimagine how they operate, and deliver new sources of prosperity for investors, communities, and national economies.
Today 20,000 companies have committed to bold climate action through Coalition initiatives, and year after year this number keeps growing. Climate change is a business reality, and the need for business leadership has never felt more urgent—or more validated.
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Companies are continuing to set credible climate targets, increase renewable energy demand, and a recent trend is the alignment of their policy advocacy with their climate and nature goals. We’ve also seen clear evidence that business continues to lead— and when there is policy certainty, growth of clean technologies is exponential.
In 2024, our Coalition focused on delivering impact where it matters most:
- Influencing ambitious climate policy
- Enabling stronger corporate action
- Equipping businesses with practical tools and guidance
- Ensuring accountability through shaping the future of corporate reporting
Our Return on Responsibility work with Potential Energy Coalition and Maslansky + Partners helped reframe climate action as a business imperative. Our NDC Call to Action ensured that business voices shaped the next generation of national climate plans. And new platforms such as the Beyond Alliance are helping companies navigate complex markets with confidence and integrity.
From advocating for a shift from fossil to clean, to advancing climate finance, responsible policy engagement, and nature-based strategies — one message rings clear: The energy transition is now unstoppable — and business is benefiting from it.
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The businesses that secure a competitive advantage will be those investing in clean and nature-based solutions and delivering new products, energy sources, materials, services and ways of working more quickly and efficiently.
But they cannot do it alone. Business needs the right policy direction to make it happen. In 2024, we continued to deepen our engagement with policymakers. Through more than 25 major events at COP29, high-level meetings with leaders from 12+ countries, and global advocacy pushes such as the Powering Up Poll and our NDC Call to Action, we have worked to ensure that the private sector’s voice was heard loud and clear. The poll of nearly 1,500 C-suite executives highlighted overwhelming support for a rapid transition to renewable electricity—reinforcing that business is ready to move, and urging governments to keep pace.
Looking ahead, we know that next year is complex and decisive. We will continue to mobilize and equip business with tailored messages and tools to advocate for smart policies and aligned incentives to transition from fossil to clean, we will work with partners and businesses to develop innovative approaches to tackle scope 3 emissions, equip SMEs with bespoke tools and invest in high integrity nature based solutions. We will continue to convene and align with the broader business facing organizations so that together we lay the groundwork for broader, deeper, and faster transformation.
As ever, our work is only possible because of extraordinary collaboration with our founding partners and our wider ecosystem of implementation and network partners.
Thank you for standing with us, and for continuing to drive ambition, action, advocacy, and accountability across the global economy.