According to recent research, some of the world’s biggest companies are failing to live up to claims that they will achieve net-zero emissions targets. Research suggests that they will reduce their carbon emissions by only 40% rather than the promised 100%. The analysis was published on Monday by non-profit organizations “NewClimate Institute and Carbon Market Watch”. It found that the headline climate pledges of the biggest majors could not be taken at face value.
Household names including Amazon, Google, and Volkswagen were found to have low integrity on their net-zero targets, while companies like Nestle, Unilever, and BMW were found to have very low integrity.
Thomas Day of New Climate Institute, who compiled the report, said that the efforts of the 25 firms studied would produce little impact.“It is not clear these reductions take us beyond business as usual,” he said. “We were very disappointed and surprised at how much room for improvement there was [among the companies studied. Companies need to be much more transparent about these goals.”
None of the major multinationals were found to have high integrity. According to the report, Maesrk was found on top with reasonable integrity followed by Apple, Sony, and Vodafone with moderate integrity.
CNBC contacted the firms mentioned in the report for comment. Some disagreed with the methods used in the study. A global head of climate delivery and sustainable sourcing at Nestle, Benjamin Ware said, “We welcome scrutiny of our actions and commitments on climate change. However, the New Climate Institute’s Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor (CCRM) report lacks understanding of our approach and contains significant inaccuracies.”
According to the report, the 25 firms evaluated to account for about 5%of global greenhouse gas emissions. It affirms the scale of their carbon footprint. Thomas Day, the climate policy analyst at NewClimate Institute and lead author of the study, said: “We set out to uncover as many replicable good practices as possible, but we were frankly surprised and disappointed at the overall integrity of the companies’ claims.”
