80% Global Companies Already Have Sustainable Targets, Technology Restrictions Become Main Obstacles

Alibaba Cloud (photo: Alibaba Cloud)

JAKARTA - Based on the survey report 'Tech-Driven Sustainability Trends and Index 2024' initiated by Alibaba Cloud, as many as 80 perseb companies in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East have set their sustainability targets.

Of the total, 92 percent of companies have set emission reduction targets. Even so, only one-third of the company is committed to achieving net-zero with science-based targets (SBTs).

The highest SBTs adoption was in the growing Asian market (39 percent), followed by Europe (35 percent), the advanced Asian market (30 percent), and the Middle East (22 percent).

Furthermore, as many as 78 percent of companies agree that technology is very important to achieve global sustainability goals in key markets including Malaysia (89 percent), Saudi Arabia (87 percent), Singapore (86% percent), and France (86 percent).

Similarly, 78 percent believe that adoption of digital technology such as cloud computing and AI will accelerate progress towards a sustainability target, with Saudi Arabia leading at 90 percent, followed by the UAE (84 percent) and Singapore (81 percent).

However, to achieve this sustainability target, 29 percent of companies revealed that budget constraints were the most significant obstacles, especially in the Middle East (41 percent) and Europe (31 percent).

In addition, 28 percent of companies say complex supply chains complicate existing efforts, and also another 23 percent recognize limited technology and time hinder their efforts.

Meanwhile, for companies that have not set a target for their sustainability, budget constraints (32 percent) and technological limitations (29 percent) remain the main obstacle.