Press release 8 June 2022

WBA and ADEME announce strategic partnership

Paris, 08 June 2022 – Today the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) and The French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME) announce their strategic partnership to accelerate the global decarbonisation and energy transformation of the private sector.

Since 2019, WBA has been working in close collaboration with ADEME for the development of the Climate and Energy Benchmark. Based on Assessing low-Carbon Transition (ACT) methodologies, founded by ADEME and CDP, the benchmark measures and ranks keystone companies across high-emitting industries, including automotive, electric utilities and oil and gas. It serves as an international climate accountability mechanism by developing coherent roadmaps for decarbonisation and providing independent assessments of companies’ transition plans.

WBA will become the official host of the ACT initiative, fostering increased capacity to evaluate companies’ current and future performance according to ACT methodologies and to support companies’ decarbonisation pathways at a worldwide level. This collaboration will allow WBA and ADEME to benefit from many existing synergies and can enable further coalescence around initiatives that assess companies against the 1.5°C Paris goal. Both organisations share a deep commitment to continue cooperating with a wide range of relevant stakeholder groups, such as investors, companies, NGOs, academia and policymakers, to drive the transitions needed for a low-carbon and climate resilient future. Commenting on the new partnership,

Arnauld Leroy, CEO of ADEME, said:

ADEME is delighted to join forces with WBA to strengthen ACT initiative international dissemination in order to accelerate the climate accountability mechanism for companies willing to make their contribution to carbon neutrality operative.

Gerbrand Haverkamp, Executive Director of WBA, said:

This strategic partnership marks a milestone in our ambition to further accelerate accountability of the private sector and their role in a just and equitable transition towards a low carbon economy. Deepening collaboration with ADEME allows WBA to scale up the ACT assessments of companies within high emitting sectors, while providing a global platform to the ACT initiative that boosts accountability on corporate transition planning and performance.

Later this year, WBA and ACT will publish the first Climate and Energy Benchmark in the transport sector, ranking 90 global transport companies on their alignment with a low-carbon world and their contributions to a just transition. With its high reliance on fossil fuels, the transport sector is critical to the decarbonisation and energy transformation needed. In addition, both partners are working together to develop the ACT4Finance method and ACT Adaptation road-test to provide further insight into corporate climate strategies.