Global companies’ “net zero” targets amount to only 36% emissions cut – report

(Clean Energy Wire, 13 Feb 2023) The “net zero” climate plans of 24 of the world’s largest companies add up to emissions reductions of only 36 percent, according to a report by the NewClimate institute and non-profit Carbon Market Watch.

The strategies of the self-declared climate leaders, which include household names such as Amazon, Apple, Google, H&M, Nestle, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and Walmart, are “wholly insufficient and mired by ambiguity”, the authors said. The report also argues that long-term net-zero pledges distract from urgently needed short-term emission cuts, and should be banned because they deceive consumers.

The “net zero” climate targets of 24 of the world’s largest companies, which are responsible for around four percent of global emissions, fall far behind their promises, according to an analysis of the companies’ plans for reducing their climate impact. Rather than cutting emissions to almost zero by their target year, the climate strategies amount to reducing the companies’ entire CO2 output by little more than a third, according to the second edition of the “Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor” by the NewClimate Institute and NGO Carbon Market Watch.

“Taken together, the net zero pledges of the 24 corporations amount to a measly 36 percent by mid-century,” said the authors of the report, which focuses on companies which claim to be climate leaders through their association with the UN-backed Race to Zero campaign.

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Clean Energy Wire, 13 Feb 2023: Global companies’ “net zero” targets amount to only 36% emissions cut – report