BYD

Does the core business genuinely avoid or reduce emissions, or build climate resilience? Share of revenue that is actually 'green'. Fossil-dependent models score low.

BYD's core product portfolio — 4.27 million NEVs sold in 2024, cumulative 150 billion km of pure-electric mileage, and 127,000 commercial EVs — directly displaces ICE emissions at massive scale, and its vertically integrated battery technology actively reduces dependence on high-emitting minerals.

Credible, science-based targets (SBTi), a real net-zero plan with progress to date, and CDP disclosure — not just a dated press release.

BYD has set a 50% operational carbon-intensity reduction by 2030 and whole-value-chain carbon neutrality by 2045, but these targets are not SBTi-validated, lack interim milestones covering upstream Scope 3, and the company does not yet disclose purchased-goods Scope 3 emissions — leaving the headline pledge largely unverifiable.

Operational footprint, labour and social practices, and governance quality across the company's own operations and supply chain.

BYD appointed its first CSO and tied 10% of executive pay to ESG metrics in 2024, and invested 1.41 billion RMB in waste compliance; however, Amnesty International ranked it among the worst EV makers for human-rights due diligence, its human-rights policy only appeared in July 2024, and supply-chain transparency for labour and minerals remains very poor.

Quality of disclosure, independent third-party verification, and how much hard data backs the company's claims.

BYD publishes annual sustainability/ESG reports aligned to GRI and Hong Kong ESG Reporting Guide and discloses Scope 1/2 data, but third-party independent assurance of those figures is limited, Scope 3 from purchased goods is omitted, and academic analysis identifies selective reporting, insufficient data support, and image-polishing over substantive environmental disclosure.

Controversies, litigation, pollution, fossil-fuel lobbying, conflict-zone involvement and governance scandals. Higher means cleaner.

BYD faces a pattern of serious, independently documented labour controversies: Brazilian authorities found 163 workers in 'degrading' and 'slavery-like' conditions in December 2024, prosecutors filed suit in May 2025, Brazil added BYD to its forced-labour registry in April 2026, Human Rights Watch flagged BYD for Uyghur forced-labour risk in aluminium supply chains (with BYD refusing to respond to questions), and China Labour Watch documented similar issues at its Hungary factory — representing repeated, multi-jurisdiction harm.