More firms have included low-carbon goals in their long-term future business plans according to a global survey from CDP tracking how companies are responding to climate change. This was CDP's second annual report monitoring the response of business to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change which came into force in November 2016.

The Paris Agreement's central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

CDP's survey found that 14% of the 1,073 responding companies have committed to carbon reduction targets to meet the Agreement's aim which has been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative. This is an increase from 94 to 151 companies in the last year and among the firms that have set these targets are AkzoNobel, Portuguese energy business, EDP and Unilever. CDP said that an additional 317 companies (30% of the sample) aim to set science-based targets within two years.

Overall the survey found that 89% of companies had emissions reductions targets up from 85% last year and 68% had set them up to at least 2020 compared with 55% in 2016. CDP added that 20% of the companies had set longer-term targets to 2030 and beyond (up from 14% last year).

CDP's research also found that 32% of companies are now using internal carbon pricing, and a further 18% plan to implement this within two years; the number of companies with a renewable energy consumption target has increased by 23% in the last year and the number of companies with a renewable energy production target has increased by 36% in the past year, from 55 to 75 companies.

Paul Simpson, CEO of CDP, said: “Two years ago, the Paris Agreement fired the gun in the race to a low-carbon economy. This year, the recommendations from the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures accelerated the pace. We can already see corporate winners and losers emerging. Best practice, from the scaling of solar power to the construction of zero-energy buildings, with innovation in processes, products and philosophies is emerging; and is increasingly led from the boardroom.

In a separate analysis, CDP ranked 160 companies (out of a total of over 2,400) as A-grade for their approaches to climate change, water and deforestation, working with partners ADEC, CDP's global climate change scoring partner, and South Pole Group, their partner for Water and Forests scoring, to assess companies’ performance. For the first time these three rankings were released simultaneously.

The 160 A List companies included Colgate Palmolive, Diageo, Sainsbury's and Sony. Unilever and L'Oréal topped the rankings, both achieving A’s across all three areas of climate change, water and forests; demonstrating. CDP said, how business can reduce carbon dioxide emissions, increase water security and tackle deforestation whilst making a profit.