A Handy Guide To Determining If A Corporate Net-Zero Pledge Is More Self-Serving Green Bullshit
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A company might set a net-zero target, but then not actually cut emissions as much as it feasibly can or as much as is needed for society to stay on track for climate goals. A recent report from the Sierra Club gives Duke Energy an “F” grade for its net-zero strategy: The report faults the company for not yet having plans to retire the majority of its current coal plants, and for planning to build new gas plants rather than shifting fully to clean energy. The report says that this is “entirely incompatible with limiting warming to 1.5°C,” a threshold for avoiding the worst impacts from climate change. So what makes net-zero goals truly ambitious—and when are they the latest version of greenwashing?
Do they have more than just a 2050 goal?
“I think the most important thing that a company can do is, in addition to the long-term net-zero commitment, they can commit to medium-term goals or targets,” says Steven Clarke, the director of corporate clean energy leadership at the nonprofit Ceres. “That ensures that they’re actually taking action now to start getting them on that trajectory to net zero.”
Many of the massive transitions that have to happen take time, and without clear interim goals, there’s a risk that companies won’t be able to make changes quickly enough. And as company leadership changes, the company might also later say that it’s no longer possible to meet the net-zero goal. (Companies have already missed major environmental targets, such as pledges to end deforestation by 2020, with little public blowback.) Right now, according to a recent report from DataDriven EnviroLab and the NewClimate Institute, only 8% of companies with net-zero goals have interim targets.
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When companies don’t have clear plans for reaching net zero, their goals lack credibility. The bank HSBC recently announced that it would reduce “financed emissions”—that is, the emissions from the companies they invest in—in line with the Paris Agreement, but it didn’t say how it planned to phase out its funding for oil, gas, and coal projects. Activists derided the announcement, saying it was “like saying you’ll give up smoking by 2050, but continuing to buy a pack a week, or even smoking more.” Few companies with net-zero pledges have shared the details of their plans, says Hsu. Her team is currently working with CDP, a nonprofit that asks companies questions each year to disclose climate risk, to add new questions that delve into the details of net-zero goals—from what policies a company has in place to whether they’re including customer or supplier emissions in their calculations. “All these questions are really important to understanding how credible that zero target is,” she says. “And the fact of the matter is that we don’t really have that information.”
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https://www.fastcompany.com/90588882/how-to-tell-if-a-companys-net-zero-goals-are-serious-or-just-greenwashing
