Report: Corporations Are Lying About Net-Zero Emissions

A shocking new study of 25 mega-corporations, released this month by the NewClimate Institute and Climate Market Watch, documents how they lie about net-zero emissions.

By Sasha Abramsky, Truthout

In the wake of COP26, a lot of ink has been spilled on how mega-corporations, under pressure from consumers and environmentally aware shareholders, are stepping up to the plate with promises to go entirely carbon neutral within a few years or decades.

Yet, a shocking new study of 25 mega-corporations, released this month by the NewClimate Institute and Climate Market Watch, finds that much of this is smoke and mirrors. In fact, the researchers conclude, in reality, the emissions-reduction strategies for these companies, with a cumulative revenue of over $3 trillion and a greenhouse gas footprint equaling 5 percent of the world’s total, add up to only a 40 percent reduction rather than the 100 percent rollback implied by “net zero.” As worryingly, by 2030 the reductions would only amount to 23 percent as compared to 2019.

Corporations are lying about CO2 emissions.

Moreover, many of the pledges involve somewhat nebulous “offsets,” an accounting trick that allows a company to plant trees or implement other carbon-sequestration strategies in lieu of reducing emissions. Yet, as the authors of the report point out, to get anywhere near net zero, companies can’t play an either/or game: Instead, they have to both implement offsets and also, at the same time, reduce emissions.

Behemoths like Amazon, Google, Ikea and Walmart all were rated in the report as showing “low integrity” when it came to their net-zero pledges. Others, including Nestlé, Unilever and the BMW Group, were awarded a “very low integrity” moniker for their publicly stated efforts.