In this paper, we investigate whether companies' carbon management practices (CMPs) influence their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trajectory. Using a global sample of 427 companies over the period 2018-2021, we estimate a logit model and a tobit model to assess the influence of CMPs on, on the one hand, the decision to follow an emissions reduction trajectory, and on the other hand, the magnitude of this reduction. Our results show that the decision to follow an emissions reduction trajectory is positively influenced by various CMPs, but that once this decision has been taken, the only practice that effectively influences the magnitude of the reduction is subscribing to the ISO 14001 voluntary standard. Our results also show that the most polluting companies are less likely to follow a downward trajectory, and that when they choose to do so, the higher the emissions, the lower the magnitude of the reduction. These results are of interest to companies wishing to implement CMPs with a real impact on their climate performance, and to policymakers wishing to set up incentives for companies to reduce their emissions.