Climate change, which started with the industrial revolution and has made itself felt to a great extent in recent years, indicating that we have missed the end of the rope, will lead to a very bad future for the world unless urgent measures are taken all over the world. While we are currently facing extreme weather conditions and droughts, many international steps were taken especially at the Climate Change Conference held in 2021 to prevent this.
Before the agreements covering countries before 2021, some of the largest companies in the world shared various targets in line with their efforts to reduce carbon emissions to zero. For example, Amazon has announced that it will reduce carbon emissions in all of its businesses to zero by 2040. A new study has shown that the target given by these giant companies is far behind, and even that the promises are ‘misleading’.
Companies make ‘misleading promises’ on carbon emissions:
The Climate Corporate Responsibility Monitor report, published for the first time, analyzed 25 companies that are among the world’s largest companies. The report by the NewClimate Institute and Carbon Market Watch showed that companies will only meet 40% of their zero carbon commitments decades from now. It revealed that companies will cut their carbon emissions by only 23% by 2030.
Following these data, the report shared how dire the situation was among the 4 companies among the world’s largest companies as follows:
- Nestle said it will reduce its carbon emissions by 50% (compared to 2018) by 2030. But data show that this rate will be 18%.
- Google has said that it has been carbon neutral since 2007, and will completely remove carbon emissions by 2030. Although the company is one of the leaders in tackling climate change, the calculation in its carbon neutral success actually did not include half of the carbon emitted in 2020. So much so that Google’s carbon emissions have increased in the last 3 years.
- Carrefour said it will reduce its carbon emissions to 0 by 2040. But Carrefour’s claim did not take into account the largest sources of carbon emissions, and it only applies to 2% of total emissions. In addition, the target has been validated for less than 20% of its stores worldwide.
- IKEA has announced that it aims to reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2030, or even to reduce it to negative. However, the report revealed that the reduction in emissions will be only 15%.
It was stated that none of the 25 giant companies observed in the report could reach high standards in reducing carbon emissions to zero. Amazon and IKEA were among the companies exhibiting ‘low honesty’, while the survey found 11 companies exhibiting ‘very low integrity’ with the worst grades. Among these 11 companies are Nestle and E.ON.
Some companies responded to the report:
Following this published report, statements came from the spokespersons of some companies. Amazon spokesperson stated that they know that climate change is a serious problem and that they are on the way to make all their operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025. He added that their target for 2025 is under 5 years.
A spokesperson speaking on behalf of E.ON stated that they did not find the report methodologically correct and that the results were misleading. An IKEA spokesperson stated that they have achieved great success so far and that they have plans to address remaining challenges such as the climatic footprint of the materials used in IKEA products. A spokesperson for Nestle, which is among the 11 worst companies, said that they welcome the review of their actions and commitments, but that the report contains inaccuracies.
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