Peabody Energy

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.

Peabody's core business is extracting and selling coal — the highest-carbon fossil fuel — which directly enables massive GHG emissions at point of combustion; no operational efficiency measure meaningfully offsets the product's lifecycle impact.

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

Peabody claims a 15% Scope 1+2 reduction target from a 2018 baseline (achieved in 2024) and vague future 'net-zero ambitions,' but holds no SBTi-validated targets, no CDP public disclosure score, and no credible Scope 3 roadmap — all while Scope 3 (combustion of sold coal) constitutes the overwhelming bulk of its emissions.

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

Peabody publishes an annual ESG report with board-level oversight and some safety/community metrics, but its ESG program explicitly frames coal mining as compatible with stakeholder sustainability goals, and recent operational incidents including water pollution guilty pleas in Australia undercut credibility.

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

Peabody produces an ESG report reviewed by its board and references GHG reduction progress, but there is no independent third-party verification of emissions data cited, no public CDP response, and a prior settlement with the New York AG found it had misled investors and the public about climate-related financial risks.

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

Peabody carries severe integrity risk: bankruptcy filings revealed extensive funding of climate denial organizations and scientists; the NY Attorney General found it misled investors on climate regulatory risk; it pled guilty to water pollution charges in Australia (2024); it faces a 2026 securities class action over alleged misleading statements about its Centurion mine; and it has a long history of opposing environmental regulations.