Emperor Sustainability Briefing 04.06.2026

Issue #22

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Keeping Cool

‘Holding your nerve’ has emerged as a top sustainability skill. With companies and governments having to commit to decades-long programmes to meet climate goals, it can be easy to take a second look at your priorities when the going gets tough. The UK has held firm, tabling an ambitious 2040 target this week, while McDonalds and Burberry have had to push goals back.

Also making long-term plans this week is the SBTi, who have published a 5-year plan on the organisation’s priorities, while Australia are looking to reduce in regulatory scope. As the heat rises – no pun intended this week! – we’ll strive to keep bringing you a cool view. 

Reporting highlight:

Antofagasta has released its 2025 Annual Report and Sustainability Report, outlining the copper miner’s progress and sustainability initiatives over the past year. We loved the details on operational improvements per-site, giving a broad sweep to Antofagasta’s work on process efficiency, water consumption, hydrogen and more. 

Stories:

REGULATION AND FRAMEWORKS

Australia proposes reporting exemptions for smaller companies; UK’s move next 

As part of its 2026 Budget, Australia has proposed raising the size threshold for companies to publish audited financial and sustainability reports, exempting those with revenues under A$100 million and assets of A$50 million. Additionally, the government will consult on plans to set “clearer boundaries” on supplier information requests, similar to moves made by the EU to protect SMEs from burdensome sustainability data requests. 

These measures are part of a broader push to simplify regulation, which the Australian government expects will cut compliance costs by A$10.2 billion annually once fully implemented. The government also said it intends to explore reducing existing climate rules next.  

SBTi releases 5-year strategy document – from “ambition-setter” to “transformation partner”

Over the last half-decade, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has gone from strength to strength, establishing itself as the gold standard for decarbonisation targets, and rapidly growing its number of validated companies and global reach. With a new CEO at the helm, and pressure for the organisation’s difficult validation requirements to be more compromising, it has now outlined a five-year path towards becoming a “transformation partner” – a moniker that implies both a closer involvement than only standard setting, and a more collaborative approach with companies. 

Acknowledging that it had not previously accounted fully for differences in “sectors, geographies and what companies can influence”, the SBTi now vows to use its position to act as a convenor for corporate climate action more broadly, and to be a more proactive provider of data, insights and learning. This will come with more sector-based content, which will be more sensitive to the needs of different economic areas, and the publication of guidance on use of carbon offsets – traditionally an SBTi sticking point – by the end of 2027. 

The CNZS 2.0, the upcoming new version of its flagship standard, has typically approached greater ‘openness’ not through reducing scientific depth or target stringency, but through providing more options and avenues for target setting – for instance, allowing an automotive company to set a target around proportion of EVs sold, rather than only for absolute emissions reductions. We therefore don’t expect the SBTi to lower its level of strictness much, but we do welcome its move towards making more of its important role within the corporate sustainability system. On page 30 of the strategy, you can find a useful summary of the SBTi’s immediate next steps. And if you’d like to chat on SBTi or get our view on your status in light of these changes, do be in touch with us. 

The launch of ‘TCFD for people’

The Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD) has released a draft version of its first framework, which is aimed at helping companies to report on a broad spectrum of people-related impacts. The name is, of course, deliberately reminiscent of TCFD and TNFD, the successful climate and nature equivalents. And indeed, TISFD’s four-pillar structure and emphasis on ‘risks and opportunities’ matches these frameworks’ approach. TISFD goes further in adding deeper thinking on social interdependencies, inequality and human rights, to serve as conceptual foundations. 

While handling a new and potentially complex framework won’t be top-of-mind for some companies at the moment, we’ll be interested to see if TISFD will take off. Working in its favour is the lack of a current equivalent standard for people impacts, and the fact that first-movers may be able to use early alignment to the standard to show a greater sophistication. Be in contact with Emperor if you’re interested in discussing how this might feed into your approach to social disclosures. 

Shortlist:

Lufthansa announced the offsetting of 710,000 tonnes of CO2 in 2025 through its “Green Fare”, a passenger option which includes contributions to climate protection projects. 

Standard Chartered has launched its “Green Wonton Bond”, a Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) bond for financing renewable energy and green buildings projects primarily in Asia. It is the bank’s first HKD-denominated bond, and will raise HKD 2bn ($255mn). 

POLICY

UK Government Carbon Budget: 87% emissions reductions by 2040 

This week, the UK Government tabled legislation to adopt the Seventh Carbon Budget. This would see the country adopt one of the world’s most ambitious carbon targets, which would commit the country to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 87% (from 1990 levels) by 2040. The Briefing previously reported on this budget – launched by the Government’s advisory body on climate change – in February. Striking a notably optimistic tone, the budget claims the cuts are “deliverable”, and that in “many key areas, the best way forward is now clear.” While the passing of such targets is only the beginning of the enormous work required, in his announcement energy secretary Ed Miliband emphasised the benefits of having the target on a legal footing, not least as this could help provide certainty to businesses and investors. 

CORPORATE

Fast food, slow progress: McDonalds and Burberry 

Although the luxury fashion house and fast food company may not typically be closely associated, within the past few weeks both have pushed back on emissions-related targets. Burberry has shifted from net zero in 2040 to 2050, while McDonalds published a blog stating that it would miss its 2030 scope 3 goals. Perhaps most notable about these changes were that neither company could be said to be lazy on their understanding of their own emissions. Burberry has re-submitted for SBTi validation and analysed its Forest, Land and Agriculture (FLAG) emissions, while McDonalds has made its edit based on its understanding of progress in connected sectors. As companies’ decarbonisation programmes grow in sophistication, we will likely see more of them revising targets which were set earlier on in their journeys. Perhaps counterintuitively, the greater effort and spend put into understanding emissions will often result in goals having to be pushed back. This poses a communications dilemma for companies, as transparency around targets will clash with the risks of reputational downside. 

Tech giants launch clean-tech data centres investment platform

Data centres have seen rapid rates of build-out over the past few years, as infrastructure developers race to meet demand largely driven by the growth of AI. This week a veritable big tech Mount Rushmore –  Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft – launched an investment platform for ‘cleantech’ data centres, hoping to support centres to be more sustainably constructed and operated. With data centres being infamously large consumers of electricity, and something of a regulatory wild-west, it’s cautiously encouraging to see companies take efforts for more sustainable data centres into their own hands. 

One Number:

35.1C 

The temperature in London on Tuesday last week, a whopping 2C higher than the previous May record dating back to 1944. Across both the UK and Europe, the disruptions felt at both manual and desk-based jobs are a reminder that the impacts of climate change are underway right now, and will be felt across sectors. 

To discuss any of these topics in more detail or speak to one of our Sustainability team about how to better your corporate sustainability efforts, email [email protected] -we'd love to hear from you.