More and more companies are committing to achieving carbon neutrality in the more or less near horizon. But it is still necessary that these promises be credible. According to the NGO NewClimate Institute, which has just published a review of carbon neutral pledges around the world called Net Zero Tracker, the majority of them do not meet the basic criteria for a strong net zero goal. Voices are being raised to demand more transparency so that we do not give free rein to greenwashing.
Of all the companies on the Forbes Global 2000 list, which includes the largest corporations in the world, about 700 are now committed to achieving carbon neutrality. In other words, they promise to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible, and will offset those that cannot be eliminated with carbon credits or through the use of technologies capable of capturing carbon.
But here it is: only a third (35%) of these companies’ plans meet what the report’s authors consider to be the “minimum criteria” for robust emissions reduction targets. This includes declaring the promise, explaining the steps to follow and taking immediate action, but also reporting progress at least once a year.
There is an “alarming lack of credibility”, say the authors of the report. According to them, these carbon neutrality objectives that are not tied to detailed plans are either “tokenistic in nature” or, in the worst case, “pure and simple greenwashing”.
Define rules
“There are a lot of promises of climate action, but, at the same time, global emissions are at an all-time high”, underlines in an interview with the To have to former Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna.
Last March, the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, entrusted him with the mission of leading the Group of Experts on Net Zero Emissions Commitments by Non-State Entities to remedy the “credibility deficit and the surplus of confusion”. surrounding this type of commitment.
“People hear all these promises of carbon neutrality, but wonder if they are true or not. We have to make sure that companies actually take action. Not in several years, but now,” emphasizes Catherine McKenna.
There are initiatives that allow companies, on a voluntary basis, to have the validity of their approach certified. For example, the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative, launched last week, is intended to verify the credibility of net zero claims related to the use of carbon credits.
However, this initiative is already criticized. According to the American media Bloomberg, it would sow “confusion” and could “encourage greenwashing in the deregulated carbon offset market”. The idea that companies can continue to pollute while buying credits that finance emission reductions elsewhere in the world is not the solution, according to many activists and experts.
According to Mme McKenna, it takes more than voluntary initiatives to resolve the crisis. Strict and binding regulation is needed — and companies must be held accountable, she believes.
Efforts in action
The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), whose creation was announced last November at the last Conference of the Parties (COP26) in the United Kingdom, is in line with this leveling of the rules of the game for the private sector. .
Managed by the IFRS Foundation, the main international standard-setting body for financial accounting, the ISSB’s mission is to establish and disseminate international standards governing the disclosure of information related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. ) by companies.
On Monday, at a conference organized by the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal, ISSB Vice-President Sue Lloyd spoke to an audience of business people to discuss the importance rigorous standards in this regard. She also took the opportunity to talk about the most recent developments regarding the organization’s Montreal office, which is due to open in July.
The ISSB intends to fight against greenwashing, already underlined last April Emmanuel Faber, president of the organization, in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“Greenwashing cripples everyone because people who want to make progress fail to stand out from the rest, and people who don’t want to move have a good excuse not to,” argued Ms. Faber.
For its part, the group of experts led by Catherine McKenna must submit a report on the development of “net zero” commitments for non-state entities before COP27, which will take place in Egypt next November.