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The world’s largest companies are making huge “net-zero” pledges to eliminate their contributions to climate change but in reality, they are only committing to cut their emissions by less than half, according to a new study released on Monday.
The research that covers 25 major businesses from e-commerce to automobile and consumer goods industries found that climate change commitments have been “exaggerated” and that companies are falling short on their targets.
“[The companies] only commit to reduce their emissions by 40 percent on average, not 100 percent as suggested by their ‘net zero’ and ‘carbon neutral’ claims,” said New Climate institute, which conducted the study in collaboration with Carbon Market Watch.
“Their ambitious-sounding headline claims all too often lack real substance, which can mislead both consumers and the regulators… Even companies that are doing relatively well exaggerate their actions,” said Thomas Day of New Climate Institute, lead author of the study.
Overall, the institute rated the climate pledges of Amazon, Google, Ikea, Volkswagen and Walmart as having “low integrity”, while those of Nestle, Unilever and BMW Group were rated as having “very low integrity.
Only 40%, not 100%
At least 13 of the businesses that promoted “explicit” climate change promises only committed to reduce their full value chain emissions from 2019 by 40 percent, on average. The other 12 have no specific targets.
Some of the companies have committed to deep decarbonisation of more than 90 percent of their emissions, but only five of them would effectively lower their emissions by less than 15 percent, according to the institute.
It also pointed out that many of the pledges made are “undermined by contentious plans to reduce emissions elsewhere, hidden critical information and accounting tricks.”
“Setting vague targets will get us nowhere without real action and can be worse than doing nothing if it misleads the public. Countries have shown that we need a fresh start when adopting the Paris Agreement, and companies need to reflect this in their own actions,” said Gilles Dufrasne from Carbon Market Watch.
Private companies and countries around the world have been promising that they’re doing their part to address environmental concerns. Promises include pledges to reduce, or even eliminate greenhouse emissions to stop global warming.
(Reporting by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Daniel Luiz )
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