'Businesses finding it tough to accomplish net zero goal'

A challenging global scenario, economic slowdown and high inflation are big challenges

- Rituraj Baruah

As businesses have embarked on ambitious energy transition plans in line with global climate targets, Amy Brachio, global vice chair for sustainability at EY, has said that corporates are finding tough to meet their transition goals amid a challenging global scenario, economic slowdown and high inflation.

In an interview, the EY executive said in a bid to overcome these obstacles, companies would have to integrate sustainability with their corporate strategy.

“You’ve got economic uncertainty, you’ve got inflation depending on the market that you operate in. You’ve got supply chain challenges, geopolitical issues; sustainability is having to be tackled in the construct of all of that. It is a long-term problem, requiring long-term solutions, and companies have to meet short-term metrics. So, we were seeing more pressure on commitments and actions," she said.

She added: “I think that there are two different ways to interpret it. One, it is a challenging environment and organizations are finding it harder to meet the commitments than they had anticipated originally. The other is that a lot of the easier steps have been taken."