Overview/summary:

The ongoing climate crisis is an urgent challenge for humanity. Corporations and investors from across the world are stepping up their efforts to tackle climate change and lead the way toward a greener future. We see trends toward their transition everywhere, from investors signing up for Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations to corporations committing to the Science Based Targets Initiative. Businesses, large and small, are innovating in clean energy, carbon capture technologies and circular economy adaption. While progress is being made, most businesses have faltered in deploying the full potential of human capital by failing to embrace gender diversity. Overall, gender diversity in leadership and in the workforce is a vital pre-requisite to drive innovations for clean energy transition and implement strategies for timely climate action. In this report, we make a case for this by studying the state of gender diversity among listed companies across the world, and its implications for climate action and innovation. The objective of this research is to examine the influence of gender diversity on climate governance, climate performance, innovation and climate innovation. The first three sections are the results of quantitative analysis on 1) gender and climate governance, 2) gender and climate performance and 3) gender and innovation. The last section is a case study on four leading companies on 4) gender diversity and climate innovation.