WBCSD: Will Business Leaders Back Down on Sustainability?
More than 90% of business leaders surveyed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) will not be backing down from climate action despite geopolitical turbulence.
Continued efforts and investments will focus on markets and solutions that support long-term competitiveness, the WBCSD 2025 Business Breakthrough Barometer says.
Nearly all of those surveyed also said that governments should stay the course on net zero commitments.
“The pressure to decarbonise and build resilience is no longer peripheral – it is central to competitiveness, risk management and license to operate,” says Peter Bakker, President and CEO of the WBCSD, in the report.
“This means that climate action needs to be increasingly embedded in core business strategies.”
Conditions for investments
The barometer says that businesses are looking to channel their investments into locations with “stable policy environments, affordable clean energy and growing demand for low carbon solutions”.
Asia and Europe were cited as attractive investment destinations by 74% of business leaders surveyed.
Half of business leaders named the US as a less attractive destination compared to a year ago and a majority said their confidence in North America “significantly decreased”.
The barometer says this is primarily due to policy uncertainty.
Four fifths of leaders feel that politicisation and polarisation is or will impact the cost of the net zero transition.
However, competitiveness is driving action more than compliance according to 56% of leaders surveyed.
Dan Ioschpe, Climate High-Level Champion for COP30, says in the barometer: “Having worked across sectors where decarbonisation is complex and capital-intensive, I know all too well that good intentions are not enough.
“Progress depends on whether the right conditions are in place and whether the systems surrounding a company make it possible to move from ambition to implementation.”
The energy transition
Business leaders in the power sector are optimistic about the pace of the transition and confidence that the world will reach the 2030 Breakthrough Agenda goal, making clean power the most affordable and reliable option for all countries, has increased compared to 2024.
Countries with clear long term renewable energy targets, financial support and infrastructure buildout policies are seeing particularly strong investment levels.
However, policy and supply chain uncertainty could reverse progress, leaders warn.
Supply constraints, regulatory uncertainty and customer behaviour face stalls or declines compared to last year, but investment cases and infrastructure have seen progress.
There are still regional disparities in capital allocation.
Most clean power investment continues to go into favourable investment destinations, leaving developing markets underrepresented.
Africa, for instance, only received around 2% of global investment despite representing about 20% of the global population.
“Revenue certainty through mechanisms like contracts for difference and stable CO₂ pricing are essential to enable long-term investment decisions in renewables,” a Director of Strategy & Sustainability at an international energy company told the WBCSD.
Confidence in sustainable road transport
Confidence that zero emissions vehicles will be the new normal by 2030 has decreased since 2024.
Decelerating demand-side policies, volatile trade conditions and uncertainty risk slowing down progress, leaders say.
Uncertainty about the EU 2035 internal combustion engine (ICE) ban conditions and timelines continue, with potential changes to EV regulation and tariff implications in the US.
Charging infrastructure access remains a key driver in accelerating EV adoption, especially public charging in cities.
Europe and the US are facing challenges in grid capacity, slow permitting and fragmented policy support while China leads charging deployment.
For commercial vehicles, policy remains the key driver.
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