Former Facebook Inc sustainability director Bill Weihl has launched an organization to help employees at big companies press their bosses for more aggressive policies to fight climate change.
Hundreds of companies have committed to reducing emissions in their own operations to be in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement, in which governments aim to limit global warming to well below 2oC.
However, beyond their own operations many companies have refrained from advocating for broader solutions needed to avoid a global catastrophe, said Weihl, who also led sustainability efforts at Google and is to head the new organization, ClimateVoice.
Employees at technology companies have objected to selling cloud services to Big Oil, and companies are reticent to exert lobbying influence on behalf of specific legislation.
“When it’s an issue that might be really important for society but doesn’t directly affect them, by and large most companies are silent most of the time,” said Weihl, who left Facebook in 2018.
ClimateVoice is launching as a volunteer effort, but aims to raise funds and hire staff soon after launch.
Weihl said that it would seek to organize and amplify climate activism among tech employees to push executives to lobby on behalf of legislative efforts around climate.
Workers have become a key constituency in the climate change debate, particularly at the biggest tech companies.
Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc announced more ambitious emissions targets after employees ultimately made their concerns publicly known.
Bruce Hahne resigned as a technical program manager at Google this month and criticized the company in a public letter for selling technology to the energy sector to more efficiently produce fossil fuels — echoing concerns raised by workers at Amazon and Microsoft.
“We’re dying by fire, and the Google Cloud oil and gas sales vertical is pouring on the gasoline,” Hahne wrote.
Google representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
ClimateVoice initially intends to advocate for legislation at the US state and regional levels, instead of the US Congress.
The group could be useful in providing employees with a list of policy priorities to raise with their bosses, Hahne said.
It could also help bring together workers at different companies, who could work together on proposed bills with less fear of retaliation from management.
“ClimateVoice is going to need to design sets of tactical behaviors that work well with cultures of the organizations, and that are safe,” Hahne said.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
AVIATION: Despite production issues in the US, the Taoyuan-based airline expects to receive 24 passenger planes on schedule, while one freight plane is delayed The ongoing strike at Boeing Co has had only a minor impact on China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), although the delivery of a new cargo jet might be postponed, CAL chairman Hsieh Su-chien (謝世謙) said on Saturday. The 24 Boeing 787-9 passenger aircraft on order would be delivered on schedule from next year to 2028, while one 777F freight aircraft would be delayed, Hsieh told reporters at a company event. Boeing, which announced a decision on Friday to cut 17,000 jobs — about one-tenth of its workforce — is facing a strike by 33,000 US west coast workers that has halted production
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
RSS