Climate transition plans: driving change or getting in the way?

WHITE PAPER

Jul 24

Written By SB+CO

2 MINUTE READ

Are climate transition plans foundational to driving real change – or not worth the paper they’re printed on? A step in the right direction, or a waste of valuable time and resources that could be spent on actions that matter? Is too much effort being focused within individual companies when it is actually the rules of the game that need to change?

If you’re wondering what transition plans mean for your company, our ‘No-Bull’ white paper sets out what they’re good for and what their limitations are. It builds on a discussion held with our expert panel at London Climate Action Week 2026 (see the videos below to hear directly from them).

Hint one: a lot of the value lies in the process itself, rather than the published plan. Being clear on how you include your internal stakeholders from the beginning is key to successful implementation.

Hint two: identifying external dependencies through the planning process gives clarity to the policy advocacy that’s needed to create the necessary change at systems level.

Hint three: companies can’t transition on their own.

Our read and watch list

For the complete ‘No-Bull’ guide, download the white paper below. In the paper, we draw on the views and insights of our panel from the London Climate Action Week event, including from Lene Bjørn Serpa, former Director and Head of Corporate Sustainability & ESG at Maersk and Rob McCann, Head of Environment, Climate, and Nature at Virgin Media O2(VMO2).

In our video interview with them, they also share how to get the most out of transition plans and their advice for sustainability leaders setting out on the process.

Other panellists included Conor Hartnett, Sustainable Client Strategies Manager EMEA at Invesco, and Richard Tarboton, Director, Corporate Transition at the World Resources Institute. Richard spoke about why transition plans are a distraction and why instead companies need to be advocating for changing the rules of the game and making the transition profitable: