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.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NASA on Saturday rolled out its towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft as it began preparations for its first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. The maneuver, which takes up to 12 hours, would allow the US space agency to begin a string of tests for the Artemis 2 mission, which could blast off as early as Feb. 6. The immense orange and white SLS rocket, and the Orion vessel were slowly wheeled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and painstakingly moved 6.5km to Launch Pad 39B. If the
RSS