Most net zero emissions pledges made by companies, cities and regions fail a quality test laid out in recommendations by UN experts at the COP27 climate talks, an analysis found on Tuesday.
“Not all net zero pledges have to be created equal, but most still lack the most basic of details necessary for delivery,” the Net Zero Tracker group said.
The platform, run by several institutions, including the University of Oxford, reviewed the promises of businesses, cities and regions in light of the new recommendations from experts convened by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to draw a “red line” around greenwashing.
Photo: EPA-EFE
According to the new advice, published at the talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, last week, firms cannot claim to be net zero emitters if they invest in new fossil fuels, cause deforestation or offset emissions with carbon credits instead of reducing them.
Guterres, who called for net zero pledges to be updated within a year to meet the criteria, trained his sights on fossil fuel firms as he slammed a “toxic cover-up” that threatened the world’s efforts to slash planet-heating emissions.
“A lot of people have a lot of work to do,” said Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a member of Net Zero Tracker. “The number of non-state actors who already meet some of these standards is quite low.”
Photo: REUTERS
A huge surge in decarbonization pledges in the past few years means about 90 percent of the global economy is covered by some sort of promise of carbon neutrality, including from countries, the group said.
Out of the 2,000 biggest listed global firms, 799 — or 40 percent — have vowed carbon neutrality, compared with 617 a year ago. Less than 30 percent have translated promises into specific plans, with most aiming to achieve the target by 2050.
Black said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine distracted firms from climate pledges, with focus shifting to securing supply chains.
While the UN expert panel recommended intermediate targets every five years, only half of companies with a net zero goal have one.
Alignment with the panel’s recommendations is even lower on other core criteria.
The UN experts said pledges must cover all a company’s activities, including indirect emissions upstream and downstream of production, down to the gasoline consumed by motorists for an oil company.
However, Net Zero Tracker said that just 15 percent of the 2,000 companies examined include all these activities, while only 1 percent of the firms reviewed did not rely on carbon credits to offset emissions in their net zero plans.
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