Signals of Change – September 2025
We Mean Business Coalition
Signals of Change is back after a short break, as we gear up for a busy few months starting with Climate Week NYC and through to COP30 in Belém. Read on for the latest examples of business action and policy progress to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to clean solutions, protect and restore nature, decarbonize supply chains, and get finance flowing to the companies building resilience and seizing the opportunities of the new economy.
Accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to clean solutions
Starting with industry, Heidelberg Materials has secured approval for a £400 million carbon capture facility at its Padeswood cement plant in Wales, set to capture 800,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year while supporting hundreds of jobs and advancing UK industrial decarbonization.
Staying in the UK, Kimberly-Clark UK & Ireland has signed green hydrogen deals worth £125 million with Carlton Power and HYRO to build facilities at its Barrow-in-Furness and Northfleet plants. The shovel-ready projects are being supported by the UK government, and aim to halve the use of natural gas at the plants by 2027 by directly replacing the use of fossil fuels fossil fuels in steam generation.
Next up, Belgian firm Armstrong International is building a new high temperature industrial heat pump production facility in Herstal. The heat pumps can generate low-pressure steam up to 120°C while reusing process waste heat, cutting energy use by up to 70%. The development comes as a new American Lung Association study finds that replacing industrial boilers with electric heat pumps across U.S. factories could prevent 77,200 premature deaths and generate $1.1 trillion in health benefits by 2050.
Turning to the built environment, New York has finalized rules under its All-Electric Buildings Act to become the first U.S. state to ban fossil-fuel systems for most new buildings—requiring electric heat pumps and appliances in low-rise construction by December 31, 2025, and extending to larger buildings by 2029.
In an example of government policy to accelerate the transition, Lithuania will award subsidies for over 4 GWh of new battery storage capacity – with additional public money earmarked. Meanwhile, Austria has allocated €12 million in investment grants which are set to deliver an estimated 220 MW of new solar and 200 MWh of storage.
Turning to EVs, both the UK and Italy have announced changes to their EV subsidy schemes, with the UK adding six additional EVs to the UK electric car subsidy scheme while Italy has approved nearly $700 million in new subsidies for EVs to boost sales.
Deep dive: Turning the tables – How SMEs can shape the future of food sector decarbonization
As the SME Climate Hub launches new courses focussed on the food and beverage sectors, this month’s deep dive from the Hub’s Director, Pamela Jouven, explores how – from energy to logistics – SMEs hold the keys to faster, smarter decarbonization across the sector.
Nature
First up, VCMI, together with Climate Focus and UNDP, has launched a multilingual Carbon Markets Access Toolkit to help emerging markets and developing economies engage with voluntary and Article 6 carbon markets and unlock much-needed climate finance.
To strengthen trust in nature-based credits, the ICVCM has endorsed Verra’s biochar and forest management approaches as Core Carbon Principle-aligned, paving the way for greater market confidence and investment.
Lastly, in a move to boost buyer confidence and transparency, Carbon Compared has launched a free interactive tool that lets organizations compare high-integrity carbon credits by type, location, cost, co-benefits and ratings.
Latest from the Coalition
- To build resilience and seize the opportunities of the clean energy transition, businesses back bold EU climate targets, writes our Managing Director of Policy, Andrew Prag.
- To raise ambition, anchor commitments in practical delivery and help align public goals with private sector capabilities, companies must show up in force at COP30, writes Coalition CEO, Maria Mendiluce.
- Wildfires in Europe show again why climate policy must go beyond party lines.Writing in Euractiv, Maria Mendiluce asks: Can climate disaster bridge Europe’s political divides?
- Under its current proposal, the EU could meet up to 3% of its 2040 climate target through high-integrity carbon credits. Done right this can complement domestic decarbonization and boost climate finance, María Mendiluce writes in Forbes.
Finance
Following a request from the European Commission as part of its Omnibus initiative earlier this year, EFRAG has launched a 60-day consultation on proposals to streamline the European Sustainability Reporting Standards. Aimed at reducing the corporate compliance burden by reviewing what companies must report, while preserving reporting integrity, the proposed revisions would cut mandatory data points by 57%, total disclosures by 68%, and shorten the standards by over 55%.
Meanwhile in a bid to defend EU sustainability standards and who should be required to report, over 200 businesses and investors, including H&M Group and Aldi South, are urging the European Commission not to dismantle core elements of its new corporate sustainability reporting laws amid proposed Omnibus revisions, highlighting risks to legal certainty and investor confidence.
Lastly, GRI has unveiled its new Sustainability Taxonomy, a machine-readable, XBRL-based framework covering all GRI Standards and aligned with ISSB and ESRS, enabling faster, more comparable digital disclosures.
Decarbonising supply chains
First to Japan, where food and beverage conglomerates Suntory, Ajinomoto, Kirin, and Meiji have launched a joint initiative to help decarbonize their overlapping supplier base of over 3,000 companies. This includes standardizing emissions data collection ahead of 2027 disclosure requirements and exploring collective sourcing to lower costs and enhance sustainability across their value chains.
Next to the UK, where supermarket giants Asda and Tesco are accelerating their supply chain decarbonization. Asda has expanded its sustainability-linked finance programme through Lloyds Bank to reward greener supplier practices, while Tesco is offering over £9.5 million to more than 400 UK farmers for meeting emissions, biodiversity, and animal welfare targets.
Meanwhile, Schneider Electric has launched an AI-powered digital platform that enables companies to engage suppliers of all sizes to track Scope 3 emissions, and align reporting with CDP, CSRD, and TCFD, accelerating supply chain decarbonization at scale and enhancing transparency.
Companies taking action
Over 20,668 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:
- 11,352 companies working to cut their emissions in line with science through SBTi
- 9,457 small and medium-sized enterprises working to cut emissions with the SME Climate Hub
- 558 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:
- 130 companies are accelerating the transition to electric vehicles with EV100, and 7 companies are kickstarting the transition to zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles with EV100+
- 129 companies are committed to improving their energy efficiency through EP100
- 444 companies have committed to 100% renewable energy with RE100
- 39 companies have joined ConcreteZero to create a market for net zero concrete
- 45 companies have committed to SteelZero to create a market for net zero steel
Events
- Climate Week NYC – 21 – 28 September
See our events listings for Coalition and partner events at Climate Week. - COP30 – 10 – 21 November
- G20 – 22 – 23 November
Careers
- See careers at BSR
- See careers at CDP
- See careers at Ceres
- See careers at CLG Europe (CISL)
- See careers at Climate Group
- See careers at WBCSD
- See careers at SBTi