Global airlines, McDonalds and the global mining industry have all just committed to going Net Zero by 2050. The UK announced plans to reach 100% renewable energy by 2035. Amazon says it will plough €20m into nature based solutions.
It’s fair to say that when it comes to climate change, big promises in advance of the COP26 conference are an abundant and renewable resource.But, are those promises sustainable? By 2050 most of the CEOs proudly setting these targets will be long retired, as will almost every other of today’s top decision-makers. Tomorrow’s leaders will be left with the heavy lifting of these carbon cuts, and that could be too late.
In these last few weeks before COP26 expect a growing frenzy of new commitments and goals from companies. A recent report by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) and Oxford Net Zero discovered that over 20% of the world’s 2,000 largest companies (with sales of nearly $14 trillion), have already set net zero commitments, along with 61% of countries and 13% of cities. But when index provider MSCI reviewed 9,300 listed companies they discovered that almost all were going to bust their carbon budgets within the next 6 years.
It seems that the business mantra of ‘under-promise and over-deliver’ has been turned on it’s head when it comes to fulfilling climate pledges. This year we’re in danger of a ‘COP then Stop’ scenario of pledges before but then inaction after. We urgently need to make sure climate commitments follow through - Forbes - Link - Solitaire Townsend - link - more like this - link
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