What: Walmart acknowledges it will miss its 2025 and 2030 emissions reduction targets due to infrastructure and technology limitations, while maintaining its 2040 net-zero goal.

Why it is important: As the world's largest retailer, Walmart's climate target revision signals broader industry challenges in balancing growth with sustainability commitments, potentially influencing how other retailers approach their environmental goals.

Walmart, the world's largest company by revenue, has announced it will likely miss its ambitious climate targets for both 2025 and 2030, citing challenges in energy policy, infrastructure, and low-carbon technology availability. The retailer had committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its operations by 35% by 2025 and 65% by 2030, compared to 2015 levels. Despite this setback, Walmart maintains its ultimate goal of achieving zero emissions across global operations by 2040. The company's business expansion, including new store openings and increased shipping activities, has complicated its emissions reduction efforts, with operating emissions rising 3.9% to 15.1mn tonnes in 2023 despite revenue growing by 6%. Particular challenges include a 5.3% increase in refrigerant emissions due to ageing equipment and a 10% rise in transport fuel emissions from an expanded trucking fleet. The company's scope 3 emissions, encompassing its supply chain and customer product use, reached 618.9mn tonnes in 2023, highlighting the magnitude of the challenge ahead.

IADS Notes: Walmart's recent announcement about missing its climate targets reflects broader challenges in retail sustainability, particularly in managing complex supply chain emissions. In September 2024, the company demonstrated its commitment to addressing these challenges through a strategic partnership with Unilever aimed at reducing a 'gigaton' of emissions from their shared value chain . However, despite technological advances, including the October 2024 implementation of AI-driven operational efficiencies , Walmart's scope 3 emissions increased by 5.3% to 618.9mn tonnes in 2023. This struggle occurs against a backdrop of intensifying regulatory pressure for comprehensive sustainability reporting, highlighting the complex balance between business growth and environmental commitments that major retailers face. The company's acknowledgment of delays in meeting its targets, while maintaining its 2040 net-zero goal, suggests a realistic reassessment of the technological and infrastructural challenges involved in large-scale emissions reduction.

Walmart pushes back climate change targets