Climate strategies: from Foxconn to Nestle and Walmart, 24 of world’s richest companies fail to deliver on promise, report says
- The latest Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor report found that the 2030 climate targets of these firms were ‘mired by ambiguous commitments’
- Many exploit vague and misleading ‘net zero’ pledges to greenwash their brand, while continuing with business as usual, Carbon Market Watch says
The 2023 Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor, jointly released on Monday by the NewClimate Institute for Climate Policy and Global Sustainability and non-governmental organisation Carbon Market Watch, found that the climate strategies of those major global companies were “mired by ambiguous commitments, offsetting plans that lack credibility and emission scope exclusions”.
In its second year of publication, the report assessed the transparency and integrity of corporate action in terms of tracking and disclosure of emissions, setting reduction targets as well as climate contributions and offsetting claims.
The companies evaluated had a combined revenue of more than US$3.16 trillion in 2021, making up about 10 per cent of total revenue from the world’s 500 largest firms, and accounted for around 2.2 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2019, which is roughly 4 per cent of the global total, according to the report.
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“At a time when corporations need to come clean about their climate impact and shrink their carbon footprint, many are exploiting vague and misleading ‘net zero’ pledges to greenwash their brand while continuing with business as usual,” Carbon Market Watch executive director Sabine Frank said in a statement.
