If you scroll through climate headlines right now, it’s easy to feel discouraged. BP scaling back its wind plans. Big banks pulling out of net-zero alliances. Google’s emissions go up instead of down. In the US, political winds are blowing hard against decarbonization efforts. Projects are getting defunded. People are losing jobs. The mood? Anxious, frustrated, even apocalyptic. But zoom out, and the data tell a different story. The Economist recently spotlighted a new trend in corporate climate strategy, which they called greenhushing. In short, companies are doing the work (i.e. cutting emissions, setting ambitious targets, cleaning up their supply chains), but they’re talking about it less—not because they’ve given up, but because public attention is noisy and politicized. Instead, they’re flying under the radar and quietly doubling down. Let’s look at the numbers: • 37% of companies actually increased their climate ambition last year (PwC) • 67% are on track to hit their targets, up from 64% in 2023 • Scope 3 targets (the hard stuff) are booming: 67% of firms have them, up from just 28% in 2022 • Companies with targets cut emissions intensity by 8%, compared to 3% for those without (MSCI) • Record sales of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits in 2025, surpassing all previous years combined (cdr.fyi) In other words: less noise, more action. Yes, there are political setbacks, and some companies are scaling back the marketing of their sustainability work to avoid backlash. But in the background, many are giving the culture wars the finger and continuing anyway. I find that… oddly encouraging. This doesn’t mean we’re on track (we’re not, by a large margin), but the idea that ambition is evaporating ignores the full picture. The quieter truth is, decarbonization is still moving forward, just less loudly than before. So to anyone feeling disillusioned by the headlines: don’t mistake silence for surrender. There’s real progress happening behind the scenes.