US department store giant Walmart has said it is no longer expecting to hit some of its ESG targets despite making slight progress elsewhere. In its latest climate change report, the company said that while it continued to work towards the “aspirational goal of zero emissions by 2040, progress will not be linear”.

Walmart cited its “trajectory and challenges related to energy policy, infrastructure and the availability of cost-effective low-carbon technologies” as causes for a delay in achieving its interim 2025 (35 percent reduction in emissions) and 2030 (65 percent reduction) targets.

As of the end of 2023, however, its operational emissions (Scope 1 and 2) decreased 19.3 percent relative to its 2015 baseline, while carbon intensity was reported to have declined by 45 percent over the same period. Despite this, throughout 2023, Walmart’s year-over-year emissions increased 3.9 percent due to “business growth and other factors”.

The company did note that it was continuing to expand its onsite and offsite renewable energy portfolio, with 48 percent of its global electricity needs supplied by renewable sources in 2023, falling in line with targets.

It must also be noted that, as of February 2024, Walmart achieved its goal of engaging suppliers to reduce, avoid or sequester one billion metric tons of GHG emissions in their product value chains. This was associated with Scope 3 goals approved by the SBTi through the company’s Project Gigaton.

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