2024 was a challenging year for many, including myclimate. Despite all the turbulence, with your help we managed to achieve astonishing results for climate protection. The success stories of the past year came from various different areas. Through our education projects, for instance, we raised awareness among thousands of people, training them, inspiring them and empowering them to take action for the climate, particularly in their careers. We gave companies specific advice on their own path to net zero and how to pursue it. We expanded our project portfolio quantitatively and qualitatively, from Dornbirn, Austria, to India.
On top of that, we made a conscious decision to invest in our future viability by implementing significant internal technology and infrastructure projects over the past year. We also expanded our team. We make it our mission to identify and address issues and opportunities not as ends in themselves, but as considered yet consistent levers for greater climate and environmental impact and as a positive contribution to the global SDGs. We kept to this course and had the courage to invest even when it became clear that corporate climate protection cannot escape overall social and economic developments.
But to put it bluntly, in times of challenging economic conditions, marked by global uncertainty and with tangible effects such as high inflation rates, we have seen a decline in the willingness of companies to actively invest in climate protection within and beyond their own value chain.
So we are all the more grateful for the achievements we were able to experience with you once again in 2024. We verifiably avoided or secured long-term storage for several million tonnes of CO2 emissions with our projects across the globe. In addition, our strategic consulting and educational programmes helped to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or even avoid them altogether. We will build on this to continue working for a better climate future.
We are very pleased to share a selection of success stories with you in this annual report. We also transparently disclose the key figures from our CO2 registry, our proven contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and our financial flows. As part of a restatement, the balance sheet was adjusted retrospectively as at 1 January 2023: CO₂ certificates worth CHF 24.6 million were capitalised and allocated to the climate protection fund, and adjustments were also made to the accrual of sales and costs. These measures enhance balance sheet transparency without impacting the operating statement or organisational capital.
At a time when trade wars loom one day only to be cancelled the next, even as real wars are still being fought, many companies lack the capacity to address the climate as well. The voice of warning is more or less the last thing anyone wants to hear at a time like this – especially as it can sound a lot like nagging. “Climate fatigue” is the technical term for these phenomena.
There is also current discussion around meaningful rules and laws such as non-financial reporting obligations for companies (including the CSRD). At the same time, existing standards are being questioned and resized. Where is the impetus for climate protection and future viability in that?
Despite ongoing discussions, the climate continues to change. Ignoring the consequences would be fatal. We see every challenge as an opportunity. We are glad to see the debate moving away from clear but highly demanding, bureaucratic rules and towards simpler implementation that will make companies fit for the future.
Future viability is our guiding star. This is precisely the time when we should be taking a broader view and putting familiar terms into context. “YES!” – it may well be called climate protection, but it is actually future viability that is at stake here: how we create a beautiful future worth living in. That’s why we invested in the future of our organisation with courage and an understanding of the impact on this year’s operating result – especially at a time like this! And it’s all made possible by the room for manoeuvre we established in our highly successful years.
That’s what the great David Bowie once sang.* We, the conscientious people and companies looking to the future with great confidence, will continue to do everything we can to live up to this demand for a better future. A future in which we curb climate change and mitigate the effects of the climate crisis – that will indeed be a better future, a future worth living in.
With numerous courageous business decisions, we have created the conditions to help shape this future. We are full of conviction and ready to support you on your path to net zero in the coming year and beyond with even greater expertise, better support and new digital tools.
We hope you enjoy reading our Annual Report!
*As you may recall, we like to name each Annual Report after a song.
