Acting now to mitigate our climate impact

We have a global commitment in place to reach net zero with 2030 goals. First and foremost, we are reducing our own emissions in line with our near-term science-based targets. In addition, we are taking action to mitigate our impact today through the purchase of high quality carbon credits.

Since 2018, our largest territories have offset, at a minimum, air travel emissions. As of FY23 all PwC member firms  are purchasing carbon credits to counterbalance scope 1, 2 and scope 3 business travel emissions (at a minimum).

Our commitment to quality

We want to make sure we continue to support quality projects that deliver real and verified outcomes. We’ve put in place quality criteria for our network of firms when they purchase carbon credits. The criteria define standards, types of projects, vintages, portfolio composition, our approach to retiring credits, and require projects to go through due diligence by a third party supplier. Read more about our quality criteria in our 2023 PwC Network Environment Report.

Our current portfolio

Our carbon credit portfolio contains a range of projects in order to manage risk and maximise our impact beyond climate - to support nature and local communities. In FY23 our portfolio was sourced from 20 projects across 11 countries. 58% of our portfolio by volume came from natural climate solutions and 14% of our portfolio has additional certifications - for instance Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards (CCB) and The Sustainable Development Verified Impact Standard (SD VISta). You can find more information about the projects we supported in FY23 in the explorer tool below and in the 2023 PwC Network Environment Report.

The voluntary carbon market is changing rapidly. So we’ve been reviewing our approach to purchasing carbon credits. We want to make sure we continue to support quality projects that deliver real and verified outcomes. We also want to maximise our impact beyond our value chain – to support nature and local communities.

We’re a member of LEAF¹ - the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance coalition. This is one of the largest public-private initiatives to protect tropical forests and expand the market for high-integrity carbon credits. 

In the short term, our focus is to support projects that reduce and avoid emissions while protecting existing carbon sinks, to accelerate global decarbonisation, before transitioning to removals from FY30.

_{¹LEAF Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance coalition, 2022}