80% of the biggest companies failed to curtail climate change-inducing pollution sufficiently in the past five years

The vast majority of the worlds biggest companies have done almost nothing in the past five years to cut their planet-heating pollution enough to avoid catastrophic climate change, according to a media report.

Large companies are either more likely to contribute to extreme levels of warming or are not disclosing their greenhouse gas emissions at all, according to a new report from ESG Book, CNN reported.

The leading sustainability data provider found that the efforts of just 22 per cent of the world's 500 biggest public companies by market value are aligned with the Paris Agreement, aimed at limiting global warming to 1.5-degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels. That's a measly gain from 18 per cent of firms in 2018, CNN reported.

Climate scientists consider a 1.5-degree rise in the average global temperature a key tipping point, beyond which the chances of extreme flooding, drought, wildfires and food shortage could increase dramatically.

Almost half, or 45 per cent, of companies are aligned with warming of at least 2.7-degree Celsius - a disastrous level of warming that could expose billions of people to dangerously hot conditions. That's down from 61 per cent in 2018.

"Our data presents a clear message: We need to do more, and we need to do it quickly," ESG Book CEO Daniel Klier said, CNN reported.

"Without a fundamental change in the way the global economy operates, it's not obvious how we see a significant shift."

The report is the latest in a string of evidence that the world is way off track to meet its climate goals, CNN reported.