Signals of change – January 2026
We Mean Business Coalition
Welcome back to Signals of Change. This year, we will continue to bring you the stories showing the transition to a new climate economy is possible – and how businesses and communities around the world are benefiting.
We’ll ramp up our focus on clean electrification – read our latest deep dive to find out why. We’ll share how market-based solutions are unlocking finance to protect nature, reduce planet-heating emissions and decarbonize value chains. And we’ll continue to highlight progress by governments in fostering the right conditions – through policies, incentives and regulations that drive investment and innovation – to create the good news stories of the future.
For our latest thought leadership on wider geopolitical and market developments, subscribe here.
Signals of an accelerated transition from fossil fuels to clean, electrified solutions
Energy
2025 was a big year for clean power. BloombergNEF estimates global solar and wind reached a record over 800 gigawatts last year, tripling annual deployments since 2021.
China led the way, with 42% of electricity generated from clean power between January and November, a 15.4% increase on the previous year.
Elsewhere, countries such as Bulgaria, Pakistan, Hungary and Poland at times sourced around 20% or more of their electricity from solar, cutting both costs and emissions.
In 2025, coal-fired power generation in both China and India fell for the first time since the 1970s, with electricity from coal dropping by about 1.6 % in China and 3 % in India due to record growth in solar, wind and other clean energy met rising power demand.
Buildings
New research shows electrifying heat systems in U.S. factories by replacing fossil-fuel boilers, ovens and dryers with electric alternatives could cut over a gigaton of CO₂ and unlock major decarbonization opportunities in food, chemical and pulp & paper manufacturing.
Multinational engineering and technology company, ABB, has retrofitted its 110-year-old factory in Oiartzun, Spain, cutting energy use by 42% and eliminating operational emissions by electrifying processes, upgrading buildings and running the site on 100% renewable electricity.
Transport
On EV adoption, Norway charged ahead last year thanks to its non-binding target to end fossil car sales by 2025, which it set in 2017. EVs now outnumber diesel cars, while 97% of new cars sold last year were fully electric.
Daimler Truck has launched the TruckCharge Network, a semi-public charging platform that lets depot owners share capacity and enables pre-booked charging to accelerate electric freight in Europe.
Deep dive: Electrify to compete – why countries that plug in faster win the next decade
Countries that incentivize businesses to electrify can capitalize on the greatest economic opportunity of this century.
Policy and Incentives
The EU has agreed its long-awaited 2040 target to cut emissions 90% below 1990 levels, allowing limited use of international carbon credits.
Kenya has signed a $311 million deal with a pan-African fund and India’s PowerGrid to build two high-voltage transmission lines, strengthening grid reliability and enabling renewable connections. Meanwhile EU energy ministers have backed a new fund from 2028 to scale up cross-border electricity infrastructure.
South Australia has secured federal funding to fast-track wind, solar and battery projects, keeping it on track for 100% net renewable electricity by 2027.
Meanwhile in London, Westminster City Council has launched a new retrofit-first policy requiring developers to prioritize upgrading existing buildings over demolition to cut carbon emissions.
Up next, Californian regulators have approved a $115 million fund to scale plug-in electrification tech like heat pumps and battery-equipped induction stoves, giving renters access without major installation work needed.
In transport, the UK announced a further £18 million GBP in funding to expand its Plug-In Truck Grant, with discounts of up to £120,000 GBP on new electric trucks.
Meanwhile, Sweden has relaxed traffic rules around urban night-time deliveries for electric and hydrogen trucks due to their lower noise levels.
Chile has issued a €1.5bn sustainability-linked sovereign bond that for the first time ties its interest rate to meeting global biodiversity “30×30” protection targets under the Kunming-Montreal framework, setting a new benchmark for nature-focused sustainable finance.
Regulation and reporting
Turning to finance, mandatory reporting – which helps attract investment to the more sustainable countries – continues to embed globally. And voluntary reporting is also good for business: Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) found that 73% of studies showed a positive impact between companies that disclose their impacts and financial performance.
The Philippines has adopted mandatory IFRS-based sustainability and climate reporting standards, requiring large companies to begin phased disclosures from 2027 and aligning the country with global reporting norms.
China released a new corporate climate reporting standard aligned with the IFRS climate framework. Initially voluntary, it is designed to pave the way for mandatory disclosures over time.
Meanwhile SBTi has opened a pilot of its draft Power Sector Net-Zero Standard, inviting power companies to test the framework for setting near- and long-term science-based climate targets tailored to the energy industry’s emissions.
Scaling finance through market mechanisms
First up, a new financing agreement sets out how up to $180 million will be received, managed and disbursed under a jurisdictional REDD+ programme in Pará, bringing greater clarity to benefit flows at scale.
Meanwhile, analysis from UNDP argues that African carbon markets could unlock billions in finance and create millions of green jobs while advancing the Sustainable Development Goals, if underpinned by inclusive legal frameworks, strong community participation, fair pricing and international investment.
In Sierra Leone, a mangrove conservation carbon project has negotiated a benefit-sharing agreement between the Africa Conservation Initiative and over 200 local communities in Sittia Chiefdom, giving communities a genuine role in project governance and 40% of gross revenue from carbon credit sales. This demonstrates a model for fairer outcomes in voluntary carbon markets.
As more companies begin using environmental attribute certificates, they are shifting from experimental or niche tools into mainstream market mechanisms, helping aggregate corporate demand and unlock investment in low-carbon solutions across company value chains.
Latest from the Coalition
- Beyond Alliance’s short film, From the Ground Up: Voices of the Carbon Market has been recognized in Forbes’ 2026 List of Films, Podcasts, and Books for Growth, Hope, or Inspiration. Watch the film.
- A new blog from our senior policy manager Greg Briner examines why business is engaging with national climate plans, and what it needs from government.
- Business continues to be all in, even in uncertain times. Explore some of the Coalition’s most impactful work from 2025.
- In a recent blog, our Director of Advocacy Initiatives Dominic Gogol explores how companies can extend the principles of Responsible Policy Engagement (RPE) to their public affairs relationships.
- At TED Conferences Countdown Summit in Nairobi, Steve Howard, vice chair of sustainability at Temasek and founding chair of We Mean Business Coalition, discusses four hard truths about transforming our economic system to support the clean energy transition. Watch Steve’s Ted talk.
- Writing in Financial Times Sustainable Views, our director of net zero finance Jane Thostrup Jagd writes examines whether the new European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) version 2.0 are any better than version 1.0.
Companies taking action
Companies of all sizes continue to take credible and ambitious climate action through Coalition and partner initiatives. See a snapshot of this action below.
Over 22,180 companies are taking action through Coalition partner initiatives. See all companies who committed in the past month on the We Mean Business Coalition website. Companies setting their ambition for net zero include:
- 12,555 companies working to cut their emissions in line with science through SBTi
- 9882 small and medium-sized enterprises working to cut emissions with the SME Climate Hub
- 628 companies who have now signed the Climate Pledge, to reach net zero by 2040
Meanwhile, companies are driving down emissions through the following demand-side initiatives:
- 116 companies are accelerating the transition to electric vehicles through EV100
- 107 companies are committed to improving their energy efficiency through the Smart Energy Coalition
- 445 companies have committed to 100% renewable energy with RE100
- 36 companies have joined ConcreteZero to create a market for net zero concrete
- 43 companies have committed to SteelZero to create a market for net zero steel
Events
- WEF Annual Meeting 2026: 19–23 January
- Mumbai Climate Week: 17–19 February
- Green Biz ‘26: 17-19 February
- Edie 26: 25-26 March
- First International Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels: 28-29 April
- London Climate Action Week: 20–28 June
- COP31, Antalya, Türkiye: 9-20 November